Thus far, a few of the Los Angeles Lakers’ free-agent acquisitions from the 2023 offseason have performed admirably, while others have not. It is the nature of the NBA beast that not every player brought in will pan out from the start. Certain players require more time, while others could not meet a team’s expectations from the beginning.
Gabe Vincent is arguably the most alarming and disappointing free agency signing. With a three-year, $33 million contract, Los Angeles signed Vincent to a larger deal than any other external free agent. This was after a successful postseason run with the Miami Heat, which surely increased his worth and caused concern for Lakers supporters.
The two-week timeline from Thursday’s update means that Vincent will be evaluated a month after the last game he played. Just because he will be re-evaluated does not mean he will return right after. This is simply an NBA team’s way of kicking the can down the road.
Gabe Vincent is another cursed Lakers signing from the Miami Heat
Not only were there warning signs about Vincent himself that the Lake Show overlooked because of Vincent’s good playoff run, but there was recent history that the front office ignored as well. As the old saying goes, history repeats itself.
And it looks like history may yet again be repeating itself if this Vincent injury does not pan out. The Lakers have signed several players from the Miami Heat who ended up being flops for the team. This is not a strange phenomenon with no explanation, though. Fans just have to look at “Heat Culture” and realize that it elevates guys when they are in Miami.
But when they leave the Heat, and join a team that does not have that same solid coaching staff in place, their flaws are typically revealed.
Kendrick Nunn is the most recent example of this and the parallels between him and Vincent are a bit too concerning. Both were viewed as steals by the fanbase as both showcased promising signs in Miami. Nunn never played his first season because of a knee injury that, at first, didn’t appear to be all that serious. When he eventually did play, he was awful and was traded.
There is a lot of mystique in the air around Vincent’s injury so there is no telling how long he might be out of action. He absolutely could end up being out as long as Nunn was when he suffered his injury.
Also signed the same offseason as Nunn was Trevor Ariza, who played 30 solid games for the Heat and looked crisp in the four playoff games that he did play. Ariza would play just 24 games for the Lakers during the 2021-22 season and was not great in those games. He has not been in the NBA since.
Heck, the team even took a flier on Dion Waiters during the 2019-20 season. Waiters was signed right before the season shut down and he didn’t hurt the team negatively at all but it showcases Rob Pelinka’s affinity for signing former Heat players.
The worst of all, though, came before Pelinka got the job. With a massive salary cap spike in 2016 because of a new TV deal, moves like Kevin Durant to the Golden State Warriors were possible. While Golden State did that, the Lakers committed $136 million to Luol Deng and Timofey Mozgov.
Deng was coming off of a two-year stint with the Miami Heat where he looked solid. The Lakers undoubtedly overpaid him but at least the team would get a solid veteran presence that they could rely on. That was not the case at all. Deng’s contract infamously became one of the worst in franchise history and he played only 57 total games for the Lake Show.
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