Why Los Angeles Lakers’ Kent Bazemore Is the Early Trade Deadline Winner

On the surface, the Los Angeles Lakers shipped Steve Blake to the Golden State Warriors at the trade deadline for $3.5 million in luxury-tax relief. MarShon Brooks and Kent Bazemore came back as filler that would be gone in the summer.

He may indeed be out of work in the offseason, but Kent Bazemore's play as a Laker has likely made the job search a lot easier on himself. No other player included in a trade last month has made more of his change of scenery in the two weeks since the deadline passed.

To be fair, this year's trade deadline was long on rumors and short on impact transactions. Evan Turner was the biggest name to switch jerseys this year and he went from full-time starter in Philadelphia to a sixth man in Indiana.

Spencer Hawes probably replaced Anderson Varejao in Cleveland's starting lineup—at least until Varejao is fully healthy—but the University of Washington man is producing at roughly the same level as before the trade.

Steve Blake? To the bench. Ramon Sessions or Gary Neal? They swapped places without moving the needle much for either Milwaukee or Charlotte.

Bazemore, however, is making an impact in Lakerland.

Once upon a time, the undrafted second-year guard was best known for #Bazemoring, a celebration of teammates' accomplishments rather than his own:



In 105 games as a Warrior, Bazemore was little more than a roster filler averaging five minutes and just over two points.

So excuse everyone who thought Los Angeles was getting nothing more than a competitor to Robert Sacre for Dancing with the Lakers:











Mike D'Antoni had no choice but to play both Bazemore and Brooks in their first games in purple and gold. Jordan Farmar, returning from injury, was the only other guard on the bench to face the Boston Celtics. Bazemore rewarded his coach with a...

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