If the theme for the Los Angeles Lakers' free agency direction last summer was established and familiar, then the profile of L.A.'s signing haul this offseason can best be described as fresh and emerging.
"I think we've gotten younger, I think we've gotten faster, I think we've gotten hungrier," new Lakers coach Darvin Ham said of his team's free agency class headlined by Lonnie Walker IV (23), Troy Brown Jr. (23), Thomas Bryant (25), Damian Jones (27) and Juan Toscano-Anderson (29).
Contrast that to 2021, when nine players the Lakers signed were age 30 or older on veteran-minimum contracts -- with six of them having prior experience with the franchise.