On January 5, Beijing time, the NBA regular season continued, and the Lakers defeated the Kings 122-114 to win three consecutive games. In this game, Lakers Wonder Munch continued his recent fiery performance, scoring 24 points second only to James on 8-of-15 shooting (6-of-11 from three-point range), and also delivered 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal and 1 block, playing extremely well.
Today's Munch has become the biggest surprise of the Lakers, and it can be said that the Lakers can sign him with a basic salary contract in the offseason, which is really a big profit. From the technical point of view, Munch, who is good at shooting three-pointers and does not need a lot of ball possession, is very compatible with James or Westbrook.
However, for James, he seems to have a prescient vision for Munch's outbreak, and in a post-game interview, James also said that he wanted to join Munch last season.
'We wanted to sign him last season. James said, "Kidd and I used to talk about Munch a lot last season, is there any way to snatch this guy off the Hornets' roster?" ”
Last season, Munch averaged 11.7 points per game with the Hornets, shooting 40 percent from three-point range, but because Munch's defense was not good at the time, he could only play as a substitute for the Hornets, averaging only about 20 minutes per game, which was not a serious use. Last season's Lakers, on the other hand, were excellent defensive but short of shooters, and the two sides could be said to be very complementary.
It's just a pity that the Lakers didn't do anything at the trade deadline last season, and then they only signed Drummond in the buyout market, but unfortunately the effect was not good. Coupled with the injury problems of James and Thick Brow, the Lakers, who are the defending champions, finally stopped the first round of the playoffs.
After Munch's rookie contract ended, he didn't even get a qualification offer from the Hornets, which directly made him a free agent. He also chose to join the Lakers with a basic salary, hoping to regain his value around James. From the fact that James has helped JR Smith, Shumpert, Pope and others get big contracts, from the current situation, Munch is likely to copy the resumes of his predecessors.