Trey Jemison brought much-needed toughness to the Lakers, but little everywhere else.
Welcome to our annual Lakers season in review series, where we’ll look back at each player on the team’s roster this season and evaluate if they should be part of the future of the franchise. Today, we start with a look at Trey Jemison.
The Lakers are a franchise built on the broad and gigantic shoulders of their big men. The list of legendary centers that have ruled over Los Angeles is staggering, especially compared to other teams across the league. Now, a depleted center rotation has made the towering shadow of their past more felt than ever before.
It’s important to remember the Lakers sought center depth even before trading away Anthony Davis. Then the sequence of swapping Davis for Luka Dončić, the botched Mark Williams trade and the failure of the Alex Len experience left the position in a bleak spot.
One player the team turned to shore up minutes down low was Trey Jemison. The former undrafted big proved to be a sturdy innings-eater as one of the Lakers’ three two-way players. However, his limitations put a ceiling on his ability to be a short- or long-term solution.
How did he play?
Like many fringe rotation players around the NBA, Jemison has very defined strengths and weaknesses. The 25-year-old is not the most explosive athlete, a block-shotting machine or a floor-spacer, but he is awesome at being physical.
If stirring up s— were an award, Jemison would be First-Team All-NBA. Despite playing limited minutes, Jemison almost always made an impact — literally — when his number was called.
His absurdly high foul rate is perfect evidence. According to Cleaning the Glass, Jemison committed a foul on 7.7% of the Lakers’ defensive plays (first percentile among bigs). That’s impressively and laughably high given his short stints on the court.
If averaging his numbers out, Jemison would project to commit 6.3 fouls per 36 minutes. That would be the highest mark among all players this year who appeared in at least 20 games.
Fouls are obviously not a good thing. But they do sometimes signal the level of physicality a player plays with. This was something the Lakers lacked that Jemison helped foster alongside the likes of Dorian Finney-Smith, Jarred Vanderbilt and Jordan Goodwin.
Whether it was a bone-crushing pick or nearly coming to blows with an opponent, Jemison embraced his enforcer role. Unfortunately, the other aspects of his game were severely lacking.
It may seem paradoxical, but Jemison’s future largely rests on his ability to improve his softer skills. There were too many instances where he was out of place in the team’s sets, fumbled his chances around the rim and resembled a linebacker when trying to dribble.
While clearly not afraid of contact, Jemison did not offer enough resistance on the defensive glass or in protecting the paint. These are two key areas the Lakers desperately needed help in before and especially after Davis’ departure.
The Lakers ultimately decided not to convert Jemison to a standard deal by season’s end, making him ineligible for the playoffs.
While it can be argued they made a mistake given how outmatched they were from a strength perspective against the Minnesota Timberwolves, their choice also likely depicts how they view him going forward.
What is his contract situation moving forward?
Jemison inked a two-year, two-way deal with the Lakers back in January. Since the team did not upgrade him to an aforementioned full-time roster deal, Jemison’s money will not count against the team’s cap space this upcoming year.
Unless that changes between now and the new campaign, Jemison will become a restricted free agent in the summer of 2026.
Should he be back?
It is no secret that the Lakers’ front office will be aggressive in their center pursuit this summer. But that likely means signing or acquiring at least 1-2 more bigs. With the market not being flush with options, the team could look at current in-house options for depth, including Jemision.
Given he’s still under a two-way deal, there probably isn’t a strong reason why Jemison shouldn’t be back in the fold unless a better candidate arises. The Lakers will likely scour the undrafted prospect pool for a diamond in the rough or a player who projects to be a better fit down low and next to Dončić.
While his blue-collar approach is needed on any team, Jemison is primarily an East/West big and doesn’t offer the vertical skills on offense to maximize Dončić’s playmaking. Nor does he provide the type of rim protection or glass-cleaning that the Lakers’ other two-way big, Christian Koloko, does.
If the team can address the areas where Jemison is weak, there is still a chance he’s back. If not, he could be a roster casualty in the Lakers’ search for answers.
All stats courtesy of Cleaning the Glass unless otherwise stated. You can follow Alex on Bluesky at @alexregla.bsky.social.