Lakers News: LA Making Tactical Decision With Shaquille Harrison's New Contract

The Lakers' new guard could be around for a while.

Your Los Angeles Lakers continued to be active around the periphery of their roster up to the last day of the 2022-23 NBA regular season, signing veteran center Tristan Thompson, a former champion-caliber starter on the Cleveland Cavaliers alongside LeBron James, and journeyman combo guard Shaquille Harrison just in time for the playoffs. 

Both players joined LA's standard 15-man roster on rest-of-season contracts. Though neither appeared in LA's season finale, both are available to the team for its first play-in game. The team waived little-used reserve shooting guard Davon Reed to clear space for some big man insurance and a little bonus perimeter defense.

Now, more details have emerged on the full extent of Harrison's new deal with the Lakers.

Per Bobby Marks of ESPN, Los Angeles tacked on a second, non-guaranteed veteran's minimum year to Harrison's to deal with the club, worth $2.4 million. As Marks notes, the Harrison contract instantly becomes a helpful trade asset for the offseason and/or another possible role player should the Lakers like his fit in scrimmages through the playoffs this year.

The 6'4" Harrison, 29, went undrafted out of Tulsa, and has since bounced around the league for a variety of teams, playing spot minutes for the Phoenix Suns, Chicago Bulls, Utah Jazz, Denver Nuggets, Brooklyn Nets and Portland Trail Blazers. In his five games off the bench for Portland this season, Harrison averaged 8.8 points on .417/.300/.733 shooting splits, 6.0 assists, 4.4 rebounds and 2.2 steals.

According to Luke Adams of Hoops Rumors, Thompson is only signed through the 2023 playoffs, meaning he will be an unrestricted free agent in the offseason.

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