Lakers’ Dorian Finney-Smith Opting Out Of Contract

Finney-Smith’s decision will make him an unrestricted free agent and multiple teams are expected to pursue him when the free agent period officially opens on Monday evening, per Charania. However, a return to the Lakers remains in play for the 32-year-old as well.

Having been traded from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in December, Finney-Smith appeared in 43 games for the Lakers, making 20 starts. He averaged 7.9 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 1.4 assists in 28.8 minutes per game, posting a shooting line of .442/.398/.714.

While Finney-Smith’s box-score numbers certainly don’t jump off the page, his midseason arrival helped fuel a defensive turnaround in L.A. and his reliable three-point shooting helped space the floor on offense.

His impact was reflected by his on/off-court numbers — no Lakers rotation player had a better regular season net rating than Finney–Smith’s +11.1 mark in 1,239 minutes. The club had a -3.5 mark in the 1,214 minutes he didn’t play after the trade.

If Finney-Smith doesn’t return to the Lakers, they’ll have more spending power in free agency, with the ability to use the non-taxpayer mid-level exception ($14.1MM) and perhaps the bi-annual exception ($5.1MM) too, notes ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link). However, it would mean losing a key member of their rotation.

Finney-Smith was the No. 20 free agent on our top-50 list entering the offseason. This summer may represent his best chance at one last big-time payday.