At least one positive thing may come of all the injuries the Lakers have been dealing with this season, but it’s something that will benefit just one of the team’s players.
Thanks to plenty of available minutes in the rotation without players like Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Steve Blake and Jordan Farmar around for much of the year, it’s made guys like Jodie Meeks invaluable, out of necessity if nothing else.
Meeks, along with Nick Young and Jordan Hill, are the only Lakers to have appeared in all 37 of the team’s contests. And with Meeks playing starter’s minutes in 30 of those, that has him well on the way to earning some extra cash by meeting a built-in contract incentive.
From Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times:According to his agreement with the Lakers, Meeks has a base compensation of $1.45 million for the 2013-14 season.
If he averages at least 20 minutes through a minimum of 70 games, Meeks will earn an additional $100,000.
Meeks hit a similar incentive last season, averaging 21.3 minutes a game to bump his $1.4-million salary to $1.5 million.
Should Meeks stay at 25 minutes a game or higher, he’ll be rewarded with an additional $100,000.
That’s $300,000 in total on the table for Meeks, and the way things have played out this season, he’s more than likely to get to cash those checks.
Meeks is averaging 31.6 minutes per game, second only to Blake’s 31.9 -- though Blake was appeared in 16 fewer games, leaving Meeks atop the team’s leaderboard in total minutes played. He’s averaging a career-best 13.6 points and 2.9 rebounds per contest in what’s become a lost season for the Lakers.
