Lakers News: Intriguing Free Agent Point Guard Prospect For LA Emerges In Playoffs

He could be a cheaper option than retaining D'Angelo Russell this summer.

Miami Heat point guard Gabe Vincent, a Modesto native, has emerged as an intriguing free agent prospect for your Los Angeles Lakers with a big playoff performance for the East's eighth seed.

After helping Miami vanquish the Milwaukee Bucks, widely considered championship favorites this year, in just five games during the first round of the playoffs, Vincent has been a critical part of his club's ongoing 1-1 series against the New York Knicks.

The 6'3" Vincent was signed by the Heat after going undrafted out of the University of California at Santa Barbara in 2019. 

He first earned his stripes with Miami as more of a pure point guard who could shoot when called upon, but in this postseason has taken on a greater scoring burden in the absence of injured Heat shooting guard Tyler Herro, observes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.

Vincent is averaging 15.1 points on .413/.404/.778 shooting splits, 5.0 assists, 1.3 rebounds and 0.6 steals a night across his seven games with Miami thus far.

The Lakers have gotten inconsistent play out of their top two point guards, D'Angelo Russell and Dennis Schröder, throughout the playoffs. To wit, last night in LA's 127-100 blowout loss to the Golden State Warriors, Russell scored a modest 10 points on 5-of-12 shooting (0-of-3 from deep), while Schröder nabbed just four points, all from free throws, going 0-for-4 from the field.

Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report seems confident that the Heat will be able to retain Vincent, but could a godfather offer (i.e. an offer he couldn't refuse) convince him to join Los Angeles? He'll probably net something in the range of a full non-taxpayer's mid-level exception, projected by Luke Adams of Hoops Rumors to be $11.4 million. Would LA go much higher than that with a hypothetical offer? Could LA trust him to be its lead guard over Russell, a streaky but willing shooter, and one opposing defenses respect? He'd be cheaper, and has been performing better in these playoffs, but is it worth taking a chance on someone who's by far having the best postseason of his life (he's never averaged more than 8.0 points for Miami in the playoffs before)?

Perhaps not.

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