One of the positions that the Los Angeles Lakers have to address this offseason is the center position. Andre Drummond is a free agent after being bought out, Montrezl Harrell has a player option that he will likely utilize and Marc Gasol, while under contract, was not great last year.
There is a contingent of Laker fans who want to see Gasol out of LA but it does not make a lot of sense for the team to get rid of the veteran big man unless he retires. They are not going to trade him for an improvement and the team needs all the depth it can get.
While Drummond puts up decent box score numbers he was a slight disappointment in LA and chances are he won’t return. The price is simply going to be too high for a team that does not have much to spend. If Tristan Thompson got two years $19 million then Drummond will get similar.
What the Los Angeles Lakers need is a cheap center via free agency.
Luckily for the Lakers, the center position is one of the most consistently cheap positions to target in free agency year in and year out. There are always veteran centers available and you can have them at a great price.
The center position is not as impactful as it once was, but it is still important to have a traditional veteran big that can provide the rim-protecting and rebounding presence, especially with the way that the Los Angeles Lakers are built.
There are five cheap centers that Rob Pelinka could likely sign with a minimum contract and we decided to rank the five by the potential impact on the Lakers.
Honorable mentions: DeMarcus Cousins, Dewayne Dedmon
5. Robin Lopez
Robin Lopez was a player who I was monitoring to be on the buyout market last season for the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers ended up getting Andre Drummond, who is the better player, but early in the season, Lopez appeared to be the most likely center to get bought out.
He did not get bought out as the Washington Wizards got healthier and actually managed to make the NBA Playoffs via the NBA Play-In Tournament. Now Lopez is a free agent and he is a contingency plan for the Lakers if they do not land anyone else on this list.
Lopez is a bit better of a scorer than the other centers on this list but that is not what the Lakers need in the position. The Lakers need rebounding and shot-blocking and despite being seven feet tall, Lopez leaves more to be desired in that department.
Lopez averaged just 3.8 rebounds and 0.6 blocks in 19.1 minutes per game last season. He averaged the most points per game of any player on this list in under 20 minutes but that is not enough to move him higher.
He definitely should not be the team’s no. 1 option but they could theoretically make it work if Robin Lopez ends up being the guy at center.
4. JaVale McGee
While it might have been a mistake, you can’t blame the Los Angeles Lakers for trading JaVale McGee away to open up space for Marc Gasol. Everyone loves to play the hindsight game while pretending that they were not excited for Gasol to be a Laker.
The ceiling was perceived to be higher with Gasol but the struggles he saw in the Orlando bubble continued into the 2020-21 season. He also made the Lakers more dynamic, adding a playmaking aspect as well as the ability for the position to stretch the floor.
It definitely makes sense on paper to go after Gasol as he helped the team stop clogging the lanes for LeBron to drive to the hoop. The real mistake with the Gasol move was not keeping another traditional center on the roster to give that rim protecting and rebounding presence.
Montrezl Harrell was not that and with Gasol’s struggles, the Lakers really had no one. If the team would have somehow kept McGee and brought in Gasol then it would have been a perfect pairing.
Perhaps they can run that pairing in the 2021-22 season as McGee is a free agent. Will McGee return to the team that traded him? Only time will tell, but the Lakers would know exactly what they are getting out of JaVale and there is nothing wrong with that.
Are there better options? Sure. Is McGee a safe option? Absolutely.
3. Nerlens Noel
Nerlens Noel is the youngest player on this list so you could make the case of him being a multi-year signing for the Lakers that helps address the position for more than just one season. While that could be done, Noel is who he is at this point in his career and he is not someone who is going to develop over time.
Just like the older, more veteran players on this list, Noel is a one-year option that can provide the Lakers what they need: shot-blocking and rebounding.
Noel is coming off of a decent season with the New York Knicks. If you look at his scoring numbers you may not be all that impressed but the numbers to truly take a look at are the blocks and rebounds.
Noel averaged a staggering 2.2 blocks per game in 24.2 minutes per game to go along with 6.4 rebounds. His per-36 averages of 3.3 blocks and 9.5 rebounds is exactly what this Lakers team needs.
Noel is not as efficient as you would like a center to be near the rim but that could change with LeBron James. James is the master at getting centers involved and increases the scoring workload for guys who do not score much and that could happen to Noel.
His rebounding is what holds him back and makes him the third-best player on this list, but quite frankly, the Los Angeles Lakers would still be very happy if they landed him.
2. Dwight Howard
Now this is the move that the Los Angeles Lakers could have easily changed that we can call a mistake. Bringing in Marc Gasol made sense, but letting Dwight Howard walk for a minimum contract with the Philadelphia 76ers was less than ideal.
Sure, the team got Montrezl Harrell and we were excited about that at the time but it would have still been nice to have Howard back. As evident from the team eventually getting Drummond, they could have re-signed him instead of using a roster spot on Jared Dudley, or simply re-sign him and use the MLE on someone else.
Regardless, there was a very easy path for Dwight Howard to come back to the Lakers, especially with it seeming like he wanted to return. That is in the past and he is now the second-best cheap center on the market for the Lakers to pursue.
While Howard is the second-best fit for the Lakers I would probably give him the lowest odds of actually signing with LA. The odds of him having a third stint in LA seems slim to none, especially with the way last offseason transpired.
If there are no other offers from good teams on the table then the Lakers would win by default but it does seem highly unlikely that he lands in LA, even though he would be a solid addition for the team.
1. Hassan Whiteside
People may disagree with Hassan Whiteside being first on this list as he has not grown a great reputation in the league. The reason for that is due to the fact that the Miami Heat grossly overpaid him and he was not worth even close to what he was getting paid.
We see it time and time again with players. Teams overpay on guys, who then have terrible contracts and their perceived value takes a massive hit. Was Whiteside worth $30 million? Not even close. Is he still a solid center? Absolutely.
Whiteside would bring exactly what the Los Angeles Lakers need at a higher level than anyone else on this list. Is he going to change the course of the team’s season? Probably not. But this is all about needs and Whiteside fits those needs.
He is one of the best rim-protectors in the league and utilizes his size to be a great rebounder. He can score better than some of the other centers on this list as well, although he has taken a step back in that department in recent years.
Whiteside has been relegated to the shot-blocking, rebounding center over the last two years and he has been fine in that role. Whiteside can give the Lakers 20 quality minutes either in the starting lineup or off the bench and that is exactly what LA needs.