With the recent news that Los Angeles Lakers point guard Jordan Farmar will be out approximately one month with a hamstring tear, the Lakers find themselves thin at the point guard position. Though Steve Nash returned to practice Tuesday, after being out since leaving the Lakers’ game against the Timberwolves on November 10 with a nerve root irritation, he only practiced with the team for 10 minutes and doubted he’d be ready to play on Friday.
Luckily, Steve Blake has been consistently productive facilitating the Lakers offense, but even Blake has been dealing with a hyper-extended right elbow. After the Lakers lost Jordan Farmar Sunday night, head coach Mike D’Antoni resorted to Xavier Henry facilitating the offense. After the game, Henry admitted he hasn’t played the point since his amateur basketball days.
The Lakers recently freed up a roster spot after releasing rookie forward Elias Harris, bringing their roster down to 14. With one spot remaining, the Lakers may decide to add another point guard to their roster. According to D’Antoni, the Lakers are planning to look around and are prepared to pull the trigger on another point guard, if a deal makes sense.
“We keep watching,” D’Antoni said after Tuesday’s practice. “We’re on guard, we’ll look, and if it makes sense we’ll do it.”
During the second week of November, a day after Nash’s diagnosis, Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak told the L.A. Daily News’ Mark Medina that he was not looking for point guards. But, that was long before the Lakers received the news that Farmar would be out approximately four weeks. At that point, the Lakers had two capable point guards in Steve Blake and Jordan Farmar and Kupchak was counting on Steve Nash to return to the court.
“I’d like to have three again,” Kupchak told the Daily News on November 12th, referring to his point guards.
Three would be great. Two would be nice. One, with a hyper-extended elbow, well, quite a bit less than ideal.
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