Golden State Warriors: Why Kent Bazemore to the Lakers makes little sense

The Golden State Warriors offered Kent Bazemore a multi-year contract which is what it seemed like he was after. However, he turned it down to sign a one-year deal with the Los Angeles Lakers. The reasons for him to join the Lakers are obvious.

After they traded forward Kyle Kuzma and guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope among other assets in a deal that brought the Lakers star point guard Russell Westbrook, Los Angeles needed to fill out their backcourt.

The Golden State Warriors were not able to re-sign Kent Bazemore as he’s headed to the Los Angeles Lakers in an odd string of signings.

Bazemore was an easy option for the Lakers, but the reasoning to join the Lakers over the Warriors when Golden State gave him exactly what he wanted is a bit strange. Are the Lakers’ title odds that much better than the Warriors with Klay Thompson back?

"“I want some stability, man. Tired of bouncing around. Wife is definitely sick of it. She’s human, man. Every time she gets goin’, it’s time to go again. She’s been great. Obviously it’s been hard for her — she let me off the hook a couple time. I’m really thinking hard about that, what she wants.” Bazemore said to the Mercury News’ Wes Goldberg via NBC Sports’ Dalton Johnson."

The ultimate reasoning is that he’ll have a larger role, although that’s now in question after Los Angeles also added shooting guard Malik Monk. The Lakers are also expected to be more of a favorite than the Warriors to win the 2022 NBA Championship.

Given that Thompson will return and the Dubs will likely lose Kelly Oubre Jr., Bazemore’s role will be more like what it was in the middle of the season.

Sadly, for Bazemore, his role was non-existent at times throughout the season. He was fighting Mychal Mulder and Damion Lee for minutes behind Oubre Jr. Toss Thompson in the mix, and it isn’t unreasonable to think he would want to be elsewhere.

Bazemore’s stock increased when he started and played well with Oubre Jr. out the last several weeks of the season. Bazemore shot over 40 percent from deep and hit over 42 percent of his threes in the last stretch of games which he started.

With Westbrook, Davis, and James on the floor, they’re going to need some shooting, and that will come in the form of Bazemore. However, in the season in which he averaged a career-high 4.5 attempts from deep, he shot just 32 percent from the field.

Bazemore is a solid addition for Los Angeles, but given that it seemed the Warriors did right by him combined with the fact that he wanted a multi-year contract and was offered it, the move to LA makes little sense.