Los Angeles Lakers: Three better free agents that should’ve been signed

3. Nerlens Noel

• Better signing than: JaVale McGee

Quite frankly, there is a multitude of signing that would have been better for the Los Angeles Lakers at the center position than JaVale McGee. Greg Monroe would have been better, Kyle O’Quinn would have been more productive; heck, even Dwight Howard, although he would be a headache, would produce more than McGee.

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There is a case to be made that this should be DeMarcus Cousins. However, with Cousins reportedly giving the Lakers a chance to sign him, and the Lakers turning it down, we are not going to use the injured Cousins.

Instead, there was someone on the market that was literally a perfect fit for the Los Angeles Lakers that signed with the Oklahoma City Thunder — no, not Paul George.

That man is Nerlens Noel, who was connected to LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers when the James rumors first starting picking up during last season. Despite months of anticipation and James actually coming to LA, the Lakers did not sign Noel.

Noel is young with a ton of upside and that would have been perfect for the Lakers. Los Angeles would not need to use him in a huge scoring capacity and instead would have utilized him as a shot blocker and glass cleaner.

With James and Lonzo Ball, Noel naturally would have seen more looks and be on the end of more fastbreak dunks. With his athleticism, Noel and the Lakers would have been an extremely fun partnership.

And I get that JaVale McGee has been in that Warriors locker room and is probably feeding LeBron information on how to eventually dethrone them. However, in a pure talent sense, Nerlens Noel would have been the much wiser signing.