Somebody appears to be spilling the tea now that Talen Horton-Tucker is no longer with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Chris Vernon of The Ringer indicated this week during an episode of “The Mismatch” that Horton-Tucker was somewhat unpopular in the Lakers locker room last season.
“When I talked to some people connected to Horton-Tucker, he was kind of on an island [with the Lakers] in the sense of he’s like the only young guy,” said Vernon. “He didn’t have buddies to go run around with. This is an old team with a bunch of veteran guys. He didn’t have a bunch of friends.”
The 21-year-old Horton-Tucker was indeed one of the few young bucks on a team full of over-the-hill 30-somethings last season (though Austin Reaves, 24, and Wenyen Gabriel, 25, were among those in the team’s rotation too). The Lakers chose to re-sign Horton-Tucker over Alex Caruso last offseason, but the decision failed to work out as Horton-Tucker took a big step back last year. He also had a somewhat selfish style of play, shooting just 41.6 percent from the field and averaging a lackluster 2.7 assists per game.
Now Horton-Tucker is headed to the Utah Jazz (along with teammate Stanley Johnson) as part of the Patrick Beverley trade. There had already been some clues that Horton-Tucker was on his way out of L.A. A lack of popularity among his peers might have done Horton-Tucker in as well.
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