Lakers News: Avery Bradley opts out of resumed season

Recent Lakers news is that Avery Bradley will not be joining the Los Angeles Lakers in Orlando for the resumed season.

In recent Lakers news broken by Adrian Wojnarowski, it has been confirmed that Los Angeles Lakers point guard Avery Bradley will be opting out of joining the Lakers in Orlando to continue the 2019-2020 NBA season.

This is not shocking news as Bradley was a part of a group call along with Dwight Howard and organized by Kyrie Irving to speak about not returning this season. The reasoning that Irving had behind the call was to discuss if returning would be the best as black men during this time in our country.

It was reported that Irving will not return for the Brooklyn Nets because he would prefer to “use his time on the front lines in his community to focus on racial oppression and systematic racism”.

This was reported by Chris Haynes from Yahoo. Bradley released an official statement announcing he would not return, saying

"“As committed to my Lakers teammates and the organization as I m, I ultimately play basketball for my family, and so, at a time like this, I can’t imagine making any decision that might put my family’s health and well-being at even the slightest risk.” “As promised also, I will use this time away to focus on the formation of projects to help strengthen my communities.”"

To go further into depth on the health of his family, Bradley is the father of three children. His 6-year-old son Liam has trouble recovering from respiratory illnesses (like COVID-19) and being in the bubble in Orlando would put him at a much higher risk.

Along with this, because of that fact, it is likely that the NBA would not even allow Liam into the bubble and he would not be able to stay with his father if Bradley were to finish off the year.

This is a very commendable and noble act from Bradley putting both his family’s safety and the betterment of the community around him above the season while still being very professional about the situation and giving the Lakers plenty of time to find a replacement for him before play begins in almost a month.

I believe that this once again shows just how tight-knit of a group this Lakers team is and the bond and chemistry that they have together could be the deciding factor and the thing that pushes them over the edge to win their first NBA championship in a decade.

Assuming, in the upcoming weeks, we will be seeing the Lakers front office do their best to workout players or try to find another guard who can fill the void they will be missing with the absence of Bradley.

If they do not sign anyone, however, it is likely that we will see Dion Waiters have a bigger role on the team than we originally expected or Alex Caruso will begin to get the minutes that he has earned throughout the season.