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Lakers Have Agreed To Terms With Jason Kapono
Looks like Kapono is coming back home. He didn't really play much the past two seasons in Philadelphia, but I remember him being a pretty good 3 point shooter in Miami & Toronto. Since he went to UCLA, I use to watch him in college. I don't know what he has left but maybe he'll be a nice surprise for the Lakers bench.
From Dave McMenamin (ESPNLosAngeles.com):
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- The Los Angeles Lakers have agreed to terms with free-agent forward Jason Kapono, according to a league source. The team will sign the 3-point specialist to a contract once the NBA's new collective bargaining agreement is ratified and the league's signing period begins later this week.
Kapono is expected to sign a one-year deal for the veteran's minimum, worth about $1.2 million, according to the source.
Kapono, 30, has career averages of 6.9 points and 1.8 rebounds while shooting 43.7 percent from beyond the arc. He led the league in 3-point accuracy in back-to-back seasons, connecting on 51.4 percent for Miami in 2006-07 and 48.3 percent for Toronto in 2007-08.
He spent the last two seasons in Philadelphia, where he played sparingly. He averaged 5.7 points per game in 2009-10 and saw his average dip to just 0.7 points per game last season as his minutes were cut from 17.1 to 4.7 per game.
While he's yet to sign his name on the dotted line, the eight-year veteran emerged from the Lakers practice facility on Wednesday, sporting purple and gold shorts and a warm-up shirt with a Lakers insignia across his chest.
He and Lakers forward Matt Barnes were headed to Loyola Marymount University for a Wednesday afternoon pick-up game after working out at the Lakers' facility in the morning.
"Hey, Jason, you have to park over here now," Barnes told Kapono as the new free-agent signee made his way to the general parking lot in front of the Toyota Sports Center, rather than to the spots reserved for Lakers players right by the door to the practice court.
Call it his unofficial "Welcome to the Lakers" moment.
"It was a good visit, I really enjoyed spending time with the staff in coach [Mike] Brown, [general manager] Mitch [Kupchak] and everyone else in the organization," Kapono said. "Hopefully it will turn out. I know the Lakers are trying to find a shooter, trying to find a guy that can space the floor given the personnel that they have now. The more shooters that they have, the easier it will be to space the floor for Pau [Gasol], [Andrew] Bynum and Kobe [Bryant]."
Kapono is a Southern California native. He attended Artesia High School in Lakewood, Calif., and graduated from UCLA, where he earned First Team All-Pac-10 honors all four years.
"I've always wanted to play here," Kapono said. "I grew up watching Pat Riley and I wanted to be like James Worthy and Michael Cooper and Magic [Johnson] and all those guys. So, I was always a fan. I've been a fan. If I get the chance to play here, man, it would be a dream come true."
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