Should the Lakers Bring Back DeMarcus Cousins, Dwight Howard to Fill Final Roster Spot?
The Los Angeles Lakers are in a good spot at this point in the season. They're streaking at the right time, going 8-4 since the trade deadline as of Tuesday. However, injuries are still affecting this team, and while no injury is bigger than the one sidelining LeBron James, the loss of big man Mo Bamba has been pretty huge, too.
Without Bamba, the Lakers have just two true big men on the roster in Anthony Davis and Wenyen Gabriel. While Davis is big and strong enough to play both the four and the five, Gabriel is really more of a true four. At 6-foot-9, 205 pounds, he's not really built to match up with some of the biggest centers in the league.
With Bamba out a month, the Lakers may need to make a move for another big. They currently have one open roster spot, so the experts at Lakers 24/8 debated what they should do with it. And they brought up some interesting names LA could target to help in the stretch run. You can watch the full video here:
Former Lakers DeMarcus Cousins and Dwight Howard are two of the best big man options on the market right now. Both could contribute for the Lakers at this stage in their career, and give LA exactly what they need before Bamba returns.
Another option is longtime veteran Serge Ibaka, although he also isn't exactly the big body like Cousins and Howard. Then there's Nerlens Noel, who could be that big body, but his offense has been far from good in his career.
In my opinion, the best option is Howard. He's currently playing in Taiwan, so you know he's at least in some sort of game shape. You aren't going to need him to play 30 minutes a game — he's going to play a few stretches, probably get to 15 minutes a night, and just help clog up the paint and grab some big rebounds.
Cousins could be a good option, too, but he hasn't played real basketball in a long time. He says he's working out six days a week to stay in game shape, but it's hard to know exactly what that means.
Until Bamba can return, the Lakers have a real hole with the bigs in their rotation. So it would be foolish not to bring someone in, even if it's just on a 10-day contract.
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