Roscoe Smith Deserves Chance to Make Impact with Los Angeles Lakers Next Season

Toiling away in relative obscurity is a player who could make an impact for the Los Angeles Lakers next season. And in fact, 23-year-old Roscoe Smith already has a job with the purple-and-gold organization.

Smith, a combo forward who went undrafted last June, is currently playing for the Lakers development league team—the Los Angeles Defenders. And at 6’8”, he is averaging a rather astonishing 19.2 points and 11.7 rebounds per game.

The Lakers have been in desperate need of help on the wing in recent years. Their search for answers has included Wesley Johnson, Nick “Swaggy P” Young, and even 6’11” Ryan Kelly who has been curiously cast as a starting small forward in recent games.

Yet Smith grabs more boards than Johnson, Young and Kelly put together.

In fact, Smith is the D-League’s third-leading rebounder—a flat-out hustle player who is continuing to exhibit the same glass-cleaning propensity he showed in college. During the 2013-14 season at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, he averaged 10.9 boards per game.



Prior to UNLV, Smith attended UConn where he won an NCAA title as a freshman in 2011.

Silver Screen and Roll’s Dakota Schmidt recently pointed out the effective nature of Smith’s overall game, and why he’d be an ideal prospect for the Lakers:

Smith has proven himself to be one of the finest cutters in the D-League. After he uses that lethal first step to get past his perimeter defender, Smith has a knack for changing directions on a dime, even during penetration, to create space from anybody that may come in his way. Even if he's unable to move away from him, Smith has the ability to square up and hit a floater.

Perhaps the finest part of Smith's overall offensive arsenal is his work on the offensive boards. Despite his slender 6'8” frame, Smith is effective by just simply ...

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