Lakers Rumors: LA Has ‘No Imminent Plans’ To Sign Big Man Free Agent
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It looks like your Los Angeles Lakers may be looking elsewhere for big man help, beyond free agent centers Tristan Thompson and Tony Bradley.
LA brought in both veteran big men for workouts on Monday. Today, Los Angeles head coach Darvin Ham revealed that there are "no imminent plans" for the team to add Thompson or Bradley, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN. McMenamin adds that the auditions represent the Lakers "doing their due diligence."
Thompson, an 11-year NBA vet, looked thoroughly washed up in his 57 appearances with three different clubs during the 2021-22 season.
His teammate on the Chicago Bulls last spring, Tony Bradley, was waived by Chicago to clear a roster spot for ex-Lakers guard Patrick Beverley.
Chicago initially signed Bradley to back up starting center Nikola Vucevic in an otherwise-eventful 2021 offseason. Bradley was so atrocious (he really struggled to even catch the ball) that he was quickly demoted in favor of 6'5" reserve forward Derrick Jones Jr. as a small-ball five. The 6'9" Thompson was then signed off the buyout market to replace Bradley and Jones, but was also terrible, and quickly lost ground to Jones down the season's home stretch.
To be fair, the free agent big man market is pretty barren right now. Ultimately, it makes sense for LA to look around for a Mo Bamba substitute, though if the team isn't convinced any such player exists who's better than current string bean center Wenyen Gabriel, perhaps the Lakers should look around for a little more wing help for these final 10 games, with LeBron James, like Bamba, also potentially sidelined for all of them.
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