Lakers News: Max Christie Reflects On Eventful Rookie Season

Is the shooting guard a part of LA's long-term outlook?

It's not clear quite what your Los Angeles Lakers have with rookie wing Max Christie just yet. He didn't play major minutes for the team last year, and was not a permanent fixture of Darvin Ham's bench rotation. The 20-year-old out of MSU, selected with the 35th pick in 2022, is a young, athletic shooting guard with at least the outlines of a solid 3-and-D contributor.

He spoke with reporters earlier this week about an eventful first pro season.

Max Christie with his takeaways from his Rookie season and learning under LeBron. pic.twitter.com/YFbFzoJw8x

— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) May 24, 2023

"I'm certainly planning to play in Summer League for sure," Christie revealed. "I want to make sure I keep getting my feet wet, make sure I get as much playing experience as I can. In terms of things to work on, really just everything in general, just keep stacking good days, working on my fundamentals, building on the foundation that I laid this season and making sure that I'm getting the work in this summer so that I can come back next season and really make an impact for this team."

Christie showed flashes of potential for LA, and did break through to secure a roster spot off the team's bench (albeit in limited minutes) prior to Rob Pelinka's flurry of trades that balanced out the roster and loaded up on more veteran wings.

All told, the 6'6" shooting guard averaged 3.1 points on .415/.419/.875 shooting splits, 1.8 boards in 41 games (12.5 minutes per).

His fully guaranteed $1.7 million rookie scale salary in 2023/24 is just one of four on the Lakers' books next year.

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