The Lakers’ two-way shuffle finally landed on Tuesday, and Peter Suder was the odd man out.
Los Angeles waived the rookie guard from his two-way contract to clear the spot needed to complete Arthur Kaluma’s two-way deal once Summer League ends. The move had been coming for days, and it became unavoidable once Kaluma’s Las Vegas run turned into a full-blown roster push.
Kaluma’s case was hard to ignore. ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Monday night that the Lakers were signing him to a two-way contract after he averaged nearly 19 points per game in Las Vegas while shooting 61 percent from the field and 50 percent from three.
That left the Lakers with three two-way players in Chris Manon, AK Okereke and Suder, and somebody had to be moved. The choice wound up being the least surprising one.
There was a clear hint on Saturday. In the semifinal loss to Golden State, Suder never got into the game.
The Athletic’s Dan Woike reported afterward that the rookie was healthy and available, but the staff simply chose not to use him. For a player already on an NBA contract in a summer roster full of non-contract hopefuls, that kind of healthy scratch said plenty.
The 92-88 loss closed out a strong summer for Los Angeles. The Lakers went 4-1 in Las Vegas and 6-2 overall when the California Classic is included. First-round pick Cameron Carr and second-year forward Adou Thiero drew the bulk of the developmental buzz, Manon held his ground, and Kaluma became the headline act.
Suder’s fall was fast. He signed his two-way deal with the Lakers right after going undrafted out of Miami (Ohio) in June, and less than a month later the contract is gone.
The résumé that got him there was real. Suder was MAC Player of the Year as a senior after posting 14.8 points, 4.6 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.3 steals per game while shooting 54.6 percent overall and 42.1 percent from deep. That kind of production gets attention quickly, and it did.
But the summer never really clicked. In six appearances across the California Classic and Las Vegas, the 22-year-old averaged 5.3 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 17.5 minutes per game, shooting 33.3 percent from the field and 22.2 percent from three.
He also averaged 2.0 turnovers per game against just 1.7 assists, which is a rough line for a guard trying to show he can organize an offense. The one bright spot came July 11 against Dallas, when Suder scored 14 points in under 17 minutes, hit 5 of 8 shots and made a pair of threes in the same game Kaluma exploded for 34.
But that outing ended up looking more like a spike than a turning point. Suder scored five points or fewer in four of his other five games.
The Lakers’ decision also fit the roster math. Manon had kept building on the physical perimeter defense that made his name with South Bay, and Okereke - the undrafted Vanderbilt forward Los Angeles moved on right after the second round of June’s draft - earned good reviews from the coaching staff for his defense and corner shooting.
That left Suder as the most expendable two-way player, and in this part of the roster, sentiment usually loses.
The organization’s G League affiliate, the Coachella Valley Lakers, would welcome Suder, a source told ESPN, but he intends to look at other opportunities first. That makes sense for a 22-year-old with a conference player of the year award on his resume, especially with two-way spots still moving around the league through August and September.
If he doesn’t land another two-way deal, the path back is easy to see: an Exhibit 10 contract for training camp, a preseason look, and then a season in Coachella Valley. That’s the route Kaluma took a year ago before his own summer surge changed everything.
For the Lakers, the decision was cold but practical. For Suder, the next month will decide whether Tuesday was just a detour.
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