Xavier Henry has agreed on a one-year, $1 million deal to return to the Los Angeles Lakers, Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski reports.
Xavier Henry had a phenomenal season in his first year with the Lakers. He averaged career-highs of 10.0 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 1.2 assists per game.
Henry played with a lot of confidence under Coach Mike D’Antoni. He was aggressively attacking the basket all season long. He also improved his mid-range shot and his ball handling skills. He seemed extremely comfortable in the offense. Now, the Lakers have no coach yet and whomever they hire, it would be interesting to see how Henry would fit in and if he would have the same type of season.
The 23-year old hurt his knee mid-way through last season, though. After he recovered from his knee injury, he injured his wrist, which cut his season short. Henry decided to have surgeries on both his knee and wrist after the end of the season. Due to his injuries, he was able to only play in 43 games.
Xavier Henry will most likely play backup to Kobe Bryant this upcoming season. It remains to be seen if his minutes will be cut short, but it mostly depends on how the Lakers finish up their roster. Wesley Johnson may be the next player to be re-signed by Los Angeles.
The Lakers have also waived point guard Kendall Marshall, but are likely to bring him back if he clears waivers, according to Adrian Wojnarowski. Marshall was a mid-season acquisition by Los Angeles. He thrived under D’Antoni’s point guard oriented system as many guards do.
Marshall averaged 8.0 points and 8.8 assists on 29.0 minutes per game in 54 games and 45 starts for L.A. He also shot 39.9 percent from beyond the arc. After the Lakers traded away Steve Blake, while Jordan Farmar and Steve Nash were nursing injuries, Marshall saw a huge role. However, if the Lakers bring him back for this season, he will have to fight for minutes with Jeremy Lin, Steve Nash, and rookie Jordan Clarkson, who has been amazing in the summer league so far.