The Los Angeles Lakers front office has been busy at work this offseason as they look to rediscover that winning formula. This was a team that won it all in 2020 in dominant fashion but that seems like a distant memory at this point.
The following two seasons have seen the Lakers fail to win a playoff series and last season was the ultimate embarrassment as they didn’t even make the playoffs. To get back on track, the Lakers have revamped their roster by bringing in a lot of solid role players to complement their two superstars, LeBron James, and Anthony Davis.
Lakers Fans React To The Forwards And Centers Who Are Still Free Agents
Of the players who have come in via free agency, a lot of them are guards and they also traded for Patrick Beverley, which means the backcourt is quite crowded at this point. Dennis Schroder was the latest guard to be brought in as the Lakers seem to be stockpiling at that position. A Lakers fan on Reddit, however, pointed to the lack of quality available in the free agency market at the center and forward positions as a means to explain why they have signed so many guards. His fellow Redditors agreed as they felt it is hard to find quality at that position in this stage of free agency.
“Wings are the most sought after position in the league right now. Ideally we would’ve used our taxpayer mid-level on someone like Otto Porter but maybe that wasn’t gonna happen and Lonnie was really the best we could do”
“Imo, the only guys that would be difference-making wings for us that went for the TPMLE or less this off season were OPJ, TJ Warren, Bruce Brown, and Danuel House. I would hope we offered at least a couple of them, but just got turned down.”
“Jeez that is a dire list. I’d maybe sign Melo back but I’d prefer we went a different route”
“I wouldn’t be opposed to giving our final min slot to Iggy if he’d be willing to take it. I think we need the locker room voice and experience he brings to mentor the young guys.”
“I still was in favor of bringing in Blake and playing him like every third game or depending on the matchup, let him go out there for a shift and guard Kawhi/Giannis etc and see how he did. I think he could be a decent depth 4 man in limited minutes ♂️”
“If only we had Kuz and KCP”
“I’m assuming the front office is banking on Lonnie being Malik Monk. Now Lonnie is an elite slasher and finisher at the rim, he’s also shot above league average from 3 for multiple seasons, and both him and Malik don’t play defense, so I think he can be Malik. It’s just we needed to use that TPMLE on a wing”
“All those players should start a team of old misfits that can’t play any more. Tony snell is their jordan”
“Melo or Blake the best from that list. Don’t @ me I’m not saying let’s go sign em”
“If we have a massive cap limitation with Russ’s contract, good luck getting any decent 3 and D wing in a free agency market. And there’s quite a bit of demand for them trade wise, and trading Russ for a decent return has proven to be difficult.”
“How creative can we get here. Look at the G League? Paris Bass played okay in Summer League…”
“If no trade is made I hope the Bucks rescind Nwora’s qualifying offer at the end of preseason and we snatch him up. Otherwise maybe sign Demarcus Cousins to a non-guaranteed to round out the center rotation and ensure Davis stays at the 4 to help with wing depth that way.”
“Boogie and Blake are worth signing to a team IMO”
“We should’ve tried to get OPJ with the MLE. That would’ve been a big difference IMO.”
“Really makes you wonder why we got rid of KCP and Kuzma for doing poorly in a playoffs series where almost every Laker sucked”
“I’m not opposed to Iggy. He’s still really good in short stints. He’s at least decent at pretty much everything. Plus he’s a vocal leader. He’s ancient but I think he’d be fine playing 10 mins a game. He doesn’t have his legs but why not put him in for a few mins here and there. He has really high BBIQ and good defensive instincts.”
“I may get hate for this but I wouldn’t mind Blake griffin somewhere in the second squad.”
“I don’t understand the roster. Why do we need this many guards when ideally you want Lebron (or Russ if you want that) to handle to ball. We needed defense and we got rid of a defensive coach and some young players”
The lack of options available does explain why they have gone for so many guards but you have to wonder if they brought in the right ones. Brian Windhorst, for one, doesn’t like the guards on the roster at the moment because a lot of them struggled when it came to shooting from beyond the arc last season.
He thinks the basketball people within the organization don’t actually believe in their roster as he doesn’t see the logic behind surrounding LeBron James with players who struggle to shoot from three. The Lakers are probably not done making moves, however, and we can perhaps expect some trades to be made as they look to strike the right balance.
