{"id":150693,"date":"2025-07-16T16:10:44","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T20:10:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=150693"},"modified":"2025-07-16T16:10:44","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T20:10:44","slug":"josh-okogie-lakers-free-agent-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/07\/16\/josh-okogie-lakers-free-agent-defense\/","title":{"rendered":"Could This Free Agent Answer Lakers Calls for Defense?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It seems the last piece of the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/07\/16\/lakers-lebron-james-obvious-decision\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lakers<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> puzzle will come from the perimeter, with the team actively searching for guard\/wing defenders on the trade market. However, a recent move on the waiver wire could make things interesting for LA.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Could This Free Agent Answer Lakers Calls for Defense?<\/b><\/h2>\n<h3><b>Josh Okogie Waived by Hornets<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Charlotte Hornets <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/07\/16\/hornets-waive-josh-okogie-but-still-have-work-to-do\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">waived<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> guard <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/o\/okogijo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Josh Okogie<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Tuesday before his $7.7 million contract became guaranteed. A 26-year-old known for his stifling defense, some Lakers fans naturally clamored for the team to sign him.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Josh Okogie would be a logical free agent target for the Lakers.<\/p>\n<p>Okogie was recently waived by the Hornets after his $7.7M salary was non-guaranteed while the Lakers would value the addition of a versatile, defensive-minded wing to fill out the edge of the roster this offseason.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Jake Weinbach (@JWeinbachNBA) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JWeinbachNBA\/status\/1945480863124189340?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 16, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Drafted 20th overall by the Timberwolves in 2018, the former Georgia Tech guard quickly made a name for himself thanks to his tenacious defense, which wound up on highlight reels after some <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/cjzero\/status\/1095876214861021185\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">terrific stops<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> against <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hardeja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">James Harden<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After four years of coming off the bench in Minnesota, Okogie spent two and a half seasons with the Suns in a similar role. Phoenix then traded him at the deadline to the Hornets, where he recently averaged a career-best 8.9 points and 1.8 steals in 15 games (six starts). Now a free agent, the rising eighth-year guard will likely play on a veteran minimum contract, a price the Lakers could easily afford should they move on from reserve guard <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/miltosh01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shake Milton<\/a>, who holds a contract guarantee date of July 20.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Okogie\u2019s Pros<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Okogie certainly stands out as a staunch defender at 6\u20194\u201d, able to hang with the league\u2019s best and get crucial stops on future Hall-of-Famers. When it comes to steals per 100 possessions (min. 600 minutes), <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Tim_NBA\/status\/1945552030644289628\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Okogie ranked third<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> behind <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/carusal01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Alex Caruso<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/daniedy01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dyson Daniels<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014elite company to be in when it comes to defensive-minded guards. He has the energy to relentlessly compete on defense, something the Lakers bench had mostly missed throughout the regular season and playoffs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Offensively, he\u2019s displayed a <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/scooperhoops\/status\/1632039163544457217\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">promising handle in transition<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, with enough athleticism to get up for <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NBA\/status\/1745653367571894652\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">highlight slams<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. This season, Okogie did most of his scoring inside the arc, attempting <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/stats\/player\/1629006\/shots-dash?SeasonType=Regular+Season\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">most of his shots within ten feet<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and converting 53% of them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Okogie\u2019s Cons<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite Okogie\u2019s excellent defense, his offensive limitations worsen his case for the Lakers. Throughout his seven-year career, he has shot 40.6% from the field and 29.9% from three. Though he hit respective 48% and 34% marks with Phoenix this season, that shooting came on low volume and a small sample size (25 games played, average of 14 minutes per night).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lakers fans who are against signing Okogie pointed out how the team already has a <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Lakers24ever18\/status\/1945130771481522241\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">two-way guard<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/goodwjo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jordan Goodwin<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Others argue he\u2019d be a <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/LeLukaShow\/status\/1945552853810003994\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">smaller version of<\/span><\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/v\/vandeja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jarred Vanderbilt<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, LA\u2019s 6\u20199\u201d wing stopper with his own offensive limitations. With the team in need of two-way perimeter players, Okogie\u2019s case simply isn\u2019t as strong as the trade targets LA is <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/07\/08\/lakers-in-talks-for-marcus-smart\/\" target=\"_self\">rumored to have interest in<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Josh Okogie rocks on defense and fits LA\u2019s need.<\/p>\n<p>Josh Okogie on offense has underperformed on 3s worse than Jarred Vanderbilt every year of his career until his 92 shot sample last season.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to that D he had F, F, F, F, F, &amp; F season grades in 3PT Shot Making Efficiency.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Cranjis McBasketball (@Tim_NBA) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Tim_NBA\/status\/1945552030644289628?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 16, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><b>The Last Word<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It wouldn\u2019t hurt for the Lakers to consider Okogie, seeing how he could give them a shot in the arm on defense while potentially growing his offensive skills. However, they\u2019d likely be better off trading for a 3-and-D option who could enter head coach JJ Redick\u2019s rotation sooner than later.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a9 Jason Parkhurst-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It seems the last piece of the Lakers puzzle will come from the perimeter, with the team actively searching for guard\/wing defenders on the trade market. However, a recent move on the waiver wire could make things interesting for LA. Could This Free Agent Answer Lakers Calls for Defense? Josh Okogie Waived by Hornets The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4265,"featured_media":150696,"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":[1608,7,26,62],"tags":[2037,4605,444,2941,50011,2236,3811],"class_list":["post-150693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-hornets","category-lakers","category-nba","tag-alex-caruso","tag-dyson-daniels","tag-james-harden","tag-jarred-vanderbilt","tag-jordan-goodwin","tag-josh-okogie","tag-shake-milton"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150693","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\/4265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150693"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":150704,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150693\/revisions\/150704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}