With Jordan Farmar becoming a restricted free agent this offseason and Shannon Brown able to opt out of his current contract to test the free agent market, Blake fits the Lakers' need perfectly for a second point guard alongside Derek Fisher, assuming Fisher re-signs. Blake may very well be the starter even if Fisher re-signs. Blake is younger than Fisher, quicker, taller, and a better ball distributor. He is also a 40% three point shooter which helps add a long range element the Lakers have recently lacked.
Blake is the perfect fit in LA because he is a low profile, high quality player. He relishes getting others the ball, is solid, and has a great assist-to-turnover ratio. In somewhat limited minutes, he has averaged eight points and six assists per game throughout his career. Given a few more minutes, which is likely in LA, he could easily score ten to twelve points a game, and dish out eight assists, while stretching defenses.
The Lakers have so many stars on their team already that signing Chris Bosh or a high profile point guard would have probably been the wrong move. Their scorers are in place; all they needed was quality depth at the point position and some long range shooting. In Steve Blake they get both.
Blake is also an excellent ball handler and solid defender. Although this move will not get great notoriety, in my view it is a very big signing. Fisher can now play a reduced role and will be more effective with increased rest. Blake will make the Lakers scorers better, improve LA's perimeter defense with his excellent quickness, and simply adds another good player to the mix in Hollywood.
--from Adam
(Image from blog.oregonlive.com)
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