The Los Angeles Lakers announced the signings of forward Vincent Valerio-Bodon and guards Damion Baugh, Bryce Hamilton and Scotty Pippen Jr.
Three of them – Baugh, Hamilton and Pippen – have spent time in the organization in some capacity while Valerio-Bodon is a new face. With the Lakers’ roster likely set at 14 players after the signing of Christian Wood, these players will fill out the training camp roster on Exhibit 10 contract and will likely play for the G League South Bay Lakers this season.
Pippen originally signed with the Lakers as an undrafted free agent out of Vanderbilt in 2022 and spent his rookie season on a two-way contract. In 19 games for South bay, he averaged 21.4 points, 4.1 rebounds, 5.6 assists and 1.6 steals in 27.9 minutes per game. He was named NBA G League Player of the Week on Dec. 19 and participated in the 2023 Jordan Rising Stars Game as part of NBA All-Star Weekend
In six games for the Lakers last season, Pippen played sparingly and averaged 2.3 points in 5.3 minutes.
Hamilton played in 29 regular season games for the South Bay Lakers last season after going undrafted out of UNLV, averaging 14.1 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 28.2 minutes per game.
Baugh followed a similar path this summer and signed with the Lakers shortly after going undrafted out of TCU, playing for the organization in the Summer League. After impressing in 29 games in his senior season, averaging 12.6 points, 4.7 rebounds, 5.8 assists and 1.8 steals in 35.0 minutes per game to earn All-Big 12 Second Team honors, Baugh again had a solid summer for L.A. to get this opportunity.
Valerio-Bodon is a 22-year-old 6’9″ forward out of Hungary. He played 29 games for Sopron KC of the Hungarian NBIA during the 2022-23 season and averaged 8.2 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.8 assists. He is a sniper from deep, shooting 41.2% from 3-point range. He played one game for the Boston Celtics in the Las Vegas Summer League in July and had 13 points on 4-of- 8 shooting with six rebounds, three assists and a block in 25 minutes.
Wood expected to come off bench
With these recent signings the Lakers’ roster is complete and ready for training camp, with Wood being the big late-summer addition.
Despite him starting a lot of games the last few seasons and fitting well with Anthony Davis, the early expectation is that he will come off the bench for L.A. There will be battles in training camp though so Darvin Ham will definitely test out different lineups to see what works.
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