{"id":709088,"date":"2026-04-12T16:15:46","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T16:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/709088\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T16:15:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T16:15:46","slug":"lakers-needing-backcourt-help-sign-nick-smith-jr-to-new-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/709088\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers, needing backcourt help, sign Nick Smith Jr. to new deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

ByShams Charania \"ESPN<\/p>\n

Sunday, April 12, 2026 4:06PM<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> are signing two-way guard Nick Smith Jr.<\/a> to a new two-year contract, agent Lucas Newton of Klutch Sports told ESPN on Sunday.<\/p>\n

With star guards Luka Doncic<\/a> and Austin Reaves<\/a> sidelined, the Lakers are adding backcourt depth for the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Entering Sunday’s regular-season finale against the Utah Jazz<\/a>, the Lakers hold the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference. They could move up to No. 3 with a win over the Jazz and a Denver Nuggets<\/a> loss to the San Antonio Spurs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 29 games this season, Smith has averaged 6 points and 1 assist while shooting 40% from 3 in 12.3 minutes.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ByShams Charania Sunday, April 12, 2026 4:06PM The Los Angeles Lakers are signing two-way guard Nick Smith Jr.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387603,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3785],"tags":[88603,7,130,423,150,6,67,59548,422,427,3972],"class_list":{"0":"post-709088","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-utah-jazz","8":"tag-88603","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-espn","11":"tag-jazz","12":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-smith-jr-nick","16":"tag-utah","17":"tag-utah-jazz","18":"tag-utahjazz"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116392637255203039","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}