The news that the Los Angeles Lakers are interested in Metta World Peace can be put in a category of potential NBA deals that are intriguing, but aren’t going to have any actual effect on the team in terms of ability.
According to Yahoo Sports, there’s no deal in place at the moment, just talks. World Peace spent the 2014-2015 season playing abroad. First in China, where he averaged 19 points, 6 rebounds and 2.3 steals per game, playing 15 games, and then in Italy with Pallacanestro Cantù, making his biggest impact in a playoff game he was ejected from, and not coming to terms on a new deal.
He played with the Los Angeles Lakers from 2009 to 2013, winning one NBA championship before being released by the team via the amnesty clause. He then signed a two-year deal with the New York Knicks, but played just 29 games for them before getting bought out.
What can World Peace bring? Not much. He averaged 4.8 points in just over 13 minutes per game for New York, and it’s hard to believe he can do anything else for the Lakers, who need some help on the bench and could use some more experience on the team, but World Peace has never been the leader-type of player, and when he’s not playing well, which has been the case for quite some time, tends to become a distraction.
In 15 NBA seasons, including one with just 7 games due to the season-long suspension, he has played for the Chicago Bulls, Indiana Pacers, Houston Rockets, Sacramento Kings, Lakers and Knicks. He has averaged 13.8 points in his career, making one All-Star game, named as the league’s defensive player of the year once and two All-Defensive first teams.