Not all 10-day contracts are made the same. Some serve as a chance for a young player to showcase himself on a bigger stage. Some serve as a simple stop-gap in the face of a roster crunch. But few are like the ones Damian Jones signed with the Lakers in 2021.
Those 10-day deals were wildly successful and while they didn’t lead to a season-long contract at that time, it did lay the groundwork for a future deal. The two sides finally built on that foundation a year later by agreeing to a deal to bring Jones back to the Lakers on a minimum deal.