The Lakers' late addition of Matt Ryan (no, not that one) to its regular 15-man roster after the 6'7" small forward dazzled the L.A. front office with a sharpshooting preseason run was the feel-good periphery personnel story of the 2022–23 season. Ryan joined Los Angeles on a "prove it" Exhibited 9 training camp contract and stayed with the team throughout the regular season on a non-guaranteed contract.
After graduating from college in 2020 and being undrafted, Ryan worked as a delivery driver before making his NBA debut for the Boston Celtics in the 2021–22 season. At the beginning of the year, he appeared to have a firm hold on a slot in the natural rotation under Darvin Ham. Ryan was a liability on the other end of the court while still being a knockdown shooter with one amazing buzzer-beating moment to his credit. As other swingmen with stronger defensive skills returned to health, Ryan finally found himself out of the team's lines.
Sources informed the well-connected Shams Charania of The Athletic late last night that the Lakers will sadly be cutting Ryan, Ryan himself later confirmed the news, per Kyle Goon of The Orange County Register.
That means the team's 128-109 drubbing of the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night, during which Ryan played for just 1:55 of mop-up minutes, will be his final game for Los Angeles.
The team now has a space open on its regular roster, which may potentially aid the unit should it choose to make, say, a two-for-one deal on the road, according to Charania, who also points out that Ryan was removed from L.A.'s books before his contract could become guaranteed. On December 15th, players who signed summer free agency contracts become tradeable, thus the action makes sense from that angle.
Ryan averaged 3.9 points through 12 games with the Lakers while making 37.1% of his 2.9 three-point shots in just 10.8 minutes per game. His overall field goal percentage of 30.6% is actually substantially poorer than his long-range conversion rate, which proves that he didn't accomplish much from inside the arc.
What will Ryan do after this?
I don't think he'll make another conventional roster, but with his long-range ability, it seems plausible that he might sign a two-way contract with another NBA team this year or become an affiliate player for a G League team.
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