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00:00I'm Jill painter Lopez for Sports Illustrated joined by Melissa Rowland and Melissa.
00:08The Lakers are reportedly finalizing a deal to sign J.R. Smith, who would join the team
00:14for the resumption of the season in Orlando.
00:16What do you make of this?
00:18The Lakers had a roster spot to fill after Avery Bradley opted out of the season.
00:23And J.R. Smith is definitely a smart decision in the sense that he's had a lot of experience
00:27alongside LeBron James.
00:29The Lakers will be able to plug him in right away.
00:32Obviously J.R. Smith and LeBron played together back in Cleveland.
00:35They won a championship together in 2016.
00:38And there's not a lot of time to integrate somebody onto the team.
00:41There's only eight regular season games before the playoffs begin.
00:43So J.R. Smith is definitely a very smart decision in that sense.
00:47He's also a good defender, a good spot of shooter.
00:50So he's somebody who will be able to help the Lakers right away.
00:54The only big question mark around him is he hasn't played since the top of the 2018-2019
00:59season when he mutually parted ways with the Cavaliers.
01:03So there's going to be some questions around his conditioning, around his mental sharpness.
01:07But there's a lot of pros, including that he'll be able to seamlessly fit in with the
01:11team and seamlessly fit in with LeBron James.