Los Angeles Lakers looking for some help in their front-line
The Los Angeles Lakers are looking to shore up their front-line after losing Theo Ratliff, who underwent surgery on his left knee on Tuesday 15 November.
Without Ratliff and starting centre Andrew Bynum, Lakers head coach Phil Jackson said that they are going to look on the available centres in the free-agent market to beef up their injury-riddled
front-line.
“We'll just have to short up a little bit here for the next month and put it together,” Jackson said. “We'll look at some outside talent and see what's available out there to help us out,
but there's nothing we have that guarantees we can bring in somebody to fit in.”
The Lakers are reportedly looking at Erick Dampier, who remained un-signed after receiving interests from teams like the Miami Heat, Toronto Raptors, and Houston Rockets during the off-season.
The 35-year-old centre had a verbal agreement with the Rockets, but the deal did not push through because of Dampier’s health issues, which will also make the Lakers reluctant to sign him.
Jackson also said that they will also consider signing a centre playing in the NBA Development League like Lakers’ training-camp invitee Drew Naymick, Courtney Sims of Iowa, Sean Williams
of Texas, Magnum Rolle of Maine, Cheikh Samb of Sioux Falls, and Chris Hunter of Fort Wayne.
If a deal with a free agent will not push through, Jackson will have to rely on either Derrick Caracter or Devin Ebanks to take Ratliff’s minutes, and the 11-time champion coach believes
that both rookies can contribute for them based on their pre-season performances.
“Both Derrick and Devin are going to have to be able to contribute,” Jackson said. “I'm a little more comfortable with Devin out there. He seems to have a better response to what we're running,
but Derrick's got the body to deal with some of these bigger guys.”
Meanwhile, Andrew Bynum travelled with the team in Milwaukee, although the injured centre said that they are going to stick with their targeted return on Thanksgiving, despite having problems
in their front-line rotation. “That sounds about right. I don't want to change expectations,” he said when asked about his projected return.
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