Despite having slipped to third in the West behind the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Clippers, if you’re a Los Angeles Lakers fan you have to be feeling pretty optimistic about the team.
The team still has the #1 ranked defense in the league and is better than last year’s squad in a multitude of ways.
However, in the article linked above, I mentioned my biggest concern with the 2020-21 Lakers is the lack of big bodies on the roster to guard dominant offensive centers. Marc Gasol has been one of the best defensive players in the NBA for a long time, but it’s clear that this season he just doesn’t have the legs to play extended minutes if need be.
This especially reared its head in a road loss to the Sixers, with Joel Embiid having his way with the Lakers to the tune of 28 points, while Gasol could only manage 24 minutes of court time.
Fortunately, the majority of NBA teams don’t have a player like Embiid. However, if the Lakers were to run into Nikola Jokic in the Western Conference playoffs, or if Karl Anthony-Towns were somehow traded to a contender, that would be an issue, as gifted offensive big men are the biggest mismatch for the roster.
So, what can the Los Angeles Lakers do to mitigate this issue?
There’ve been some calls amongst the fanbase to acquire Andre Drummond – who has quietly had a very good defensive season in leading the Cleveland Cavaliers to a top 5 defensive rating. However, with his insane salary and the fact that Cleveland would demand key pieces in return, it wouldn’t be the wisest avenue for the team to pursue.
Instead, I’m going to take a look at five low-cost veteran big men that the Lakers could sign to help back up Marc Gasol. I’m going to try and keep this as realistic as possible, which means predominantly looking at players on teams that aren’t contenders and who have little use for a veteran backup or third-string big man.