Joel Berry II may not have been able to compete at summer league, but his collegiate body of work earned him a spot at the Lakers’ training camp.
Berry — who sat the Lakers’ run at summer league due to an ankle injury — is coming off a First Team All-ACC campaign at North Carolina.
The 23-year-old point guard averaged 17.1 points, 3.2 assists and 1.2 steals, and was particularly effective with the deep ball.
Capable of creating 3-pointers with his own dribble and shooting off the catch, Berry averaged 2.6 made 3’s on a 34.4 percent clip, ranking third and fifth in the ACC, respectively.
A scorer first, he also averaged the conference’s sixth-most points.
At 6-foot and 185 pounds, Berry might not be the most physically imposing presence, but he does have nice finishing ability around the rim.
Still, the Orlando native is at his best as a shooter. Berry hit just 39.6 percent from the field, though much of that stemmed from his steady diet of 3-pointers. At the stripe, he led his conference in free throw percentage (89.3).
Berry has also shown to be a big-game type of player. He was named 2017 Final Four Most Outstanding Player after dropping 22 points in the Tar Heels’ championship win over Gonzaga.
He had scored 20 points in the previous year’s title-game loss to Josh Hart’s Villanova squad, making him the first player to score 20-plus in back-to-back championship games since Bill Walton (his new coach’s dad) did it 44 years earlier.
Berry joins a training camp roster that includes fellow point guards Lonzo Ball, Rajon Rondo, Alex Caruso and Isaac Bonga.
The Lakers have one two-way contract available for the upcoming season.