{"id":104341,"date":"2024-10-31T16:25:02","date_gmt":"2024-10-31T20:25:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=104341"},"modified":"2024-10-31T16:25:02","modified_gmt":"2024-10-31T20:25:02","slug":"was-lakers-jalen-hood-schifino-contract-decision-right-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/10\/31\/was-lakers-jalen-hood-schifino-contract-decision-right-choice\/","title":{"rendered":"Was Lakers\u2019 Jalen Hood-Schifino Contract Decision Right Choice?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Thursday, the Los Angeles Lakers declined 2023 No. 17 pick <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hoodsja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jalen Hood-Schifino<\/a>\u2019s team option for the 2025-26 season (h\/t ESPN senior insider Shams Charania), setting him up to be an unrestricted free agent next offseason.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The Los Angeles Lakers are declining guard Jalen Hood-Schifino\u2019s third-year team option worth $4 million for 2025-26, sources tell ESPN. This makes the 21-year-old, 6-foot-5 guard an unrestricted free agent in offseason and creates roster flexibility for Lakers. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lwKGwVTg6w\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/lwKGwVTg6w<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/1852048709879550175?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 31, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>For a player selected just outside of the lottery a little more than a year ago, the lack of faith that the Lakers have in the 21-year-old is unexpected, but was it the right decision? As a team with limited draft assets as is, shouldn\u2019t Los Angeles try to squeeze out all of Hood-Schifino\u2019s potential?<\/p>\n<h2>Was Lakers\u2019 Jalen Hood-Schifino Contract Decision Right Choice?<\/h2>\n<p>In an era that\u2019s seen team captivated by jumbo-sized point guards, Hood-Schifino left Indiana as an attractive prospect.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Jalen Hood-Schifino FULL 2022-23 Season Highlights | BIG 10 ROY | 13.5 PPG 3.7 APG &amp; 41.7 FG%\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Mp4JtLfVbrs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>His numbers weren\u2019t quite pristine. He averaged 13.5 points, 4.1 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 0.8 steals in 33.1 minutes per game. It was a head-turning all-around performance, especially for a true freshman. However, the jack of all trades shot just 41.7 percent from the field and 33.3 percent from outside.<\/p>\n<p>Sinilar to many prospects, Hood-Schifino\u2019s inefficiency was thought to be more of an issue with shot-selection and workable mechanics. So entering the draft, there was little chance he would fall out of the first round. In fact, there was a possibility that he could be selected in the lottery. As it turned out, he fell just outside of it, but that was yet another reason they were high on him. Like 2024 No. 17 pick <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/k\/knechda01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dalton Knecht<\/a>, they thought they ended up with a steal.<\/p>\n<p>In reality, Hood-Schifino couldn\u2019t find the bottom of the net after he got drafted. In Summer League, he shot 34.0 percent from the field and 21.7 percent from three. Then in the preseason, he converted just 17.1 percent of his field goal attempts and 9.1 percent of his three-point attempts. By the time the regular season started, it was clear that he wasn\u2019t going to hit the ground running.<\/p>\n<p>However, he looked much better during his G League assignment with the South Bay Lakers.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Jalen Hood-Schifino Goes Off for a CAREER-HIGH 38 PTS vs. Spurs\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3LPrfQbnTuc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In 15 games, he averaged 22.0 points, 5.3 assists, 4.7 rebounds, and 0.9 steals per game. More importantly, he made 47.3 percent of his shots, including 43.2 percent of his threes. Unfortunately for Hood-Schifino, he barely able to get out the blocks when called back up before being sidelined by a season-ending back injury.<\/p>\n<h3>Did They Jump The Gun?<\/h3>\n<p>Depending on how the season plays out, they could still bring Hood-Schifino back. They may even be able to sign him for the minimum. That being said, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/10\/20\/rob-pelinka-dooming-lakers-with-guard-problem\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">from a business perspective<\/a>, the move makes perfect sense. However, as previously mentioned, the Lakers don\u2019t have much draft capital to work with. So, losing a player who has the potential to be a rotation player to save a couple of million dollars <em>might not<\/em> have been the wisest choice.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Jalen Hood-Schifino 2023-24 Lakers Highlights\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Rku9XD7IJtA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In what was a wild offseason, there was little discussion about Hood-Schifino as he recovered. It wouldn\u2019t even be fair to say that there were high expectations when he returned. After yet <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/10\/07\/takeaways-for-lakers-preseason-games\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">another disappointing preseason<\/a>, there weren\u2019t really any external expectations for him at all.<\/p>\n<p>Still, without much chance to right the ship, it\u2019s hard to say whether the Lakers are right to have declined Hood-Schifino\u2019s upcoming team option.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Thursday, the Los Angeles Lakers declined 2023 No. 17 pick Jalen Hood-Schifino\u2019s team option for the 2025-26 season (h\/t ESPN senior insider Shams Charania), setting him up to be an unrestricted free agent next offseason. The Los Angeles Lakers are declining guard Jalen Hood-Schifino\u2019s third-year team option worth $4 million for 2025-26, sources tell [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":104352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1608,62,3],"tags":[4907,98,297],"class_list":["post-104341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lakers","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-jalen-hood-schifino","tag-nba-draft","tag-nba-free-agency"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}