Since making some moves at the trade deadline, the Los Angeles Lakers have had an open roster spot if they want to make additions.
Darvin Ham has said that he is happy with what he currently has on the team, but with Mo Bamba and LeBron James both injured and Anthony Davis still unable to play in back-to-backs, the Lakers are a bit thin in the frontcourt.
With their 15th roster space, the Lakers have a couple of directions they can go. They can add a free agent on a 10-day contract, getting a look at them before committing for the rest of the season. If they find a young guy they like and develop, they can also give a multi-year minimum contract with a team option for the 2023-24 season, which is what they did with Wenyen Gabriel and Stanley Johnson a year ago. That allows for some flexibility going into the summer.
It appears the frontcourt is a priority though as the Lakers will bring in a pair of veterans in Tristan Thompson and Tony Bradley for workouts this week, via Shams Charania of The Athletic:
The Los Angeles Lakers are working out free agent centers Tristan Thompson and Tony Bradley this week, sources tell me and @jovanbuha. Thompson, an 11-year NBA veteran, was a key member of the 2016 championship Cavaliers team alongside LeBron James.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) March 20, 2023
Thompson is the big name here as he of course is a former teammate of LeBron James, winning a championship together with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016.
Thompson played limited minutes for three teams last season, averaging 6.0 points and 5.1 rebounds in 15.7 minutes per game. The 32-year-old has not yet been picked up by a team this season, so it’s been a while since he’s seen NBA action. He has been openly campaigning to join the Lakers since the trade deadline though, and now he gets a shot to show them what he has left in the tank.
Bradley, on the other hand, is a much younger option at 25 and has appeared in 12 games, playing limited minutes with the Chicago Bulls before being waived after the trade deadline. The former 28th overall pick was actually taken by the Lakers in 2017, although they immediately traded him to the Utah Jazz when they went down a few picks in the draft and took Josh Hart and Thomas Bryant.
In 141 career games, Bradley had averaged 4.4 points and 4.1 rebounds in 11.1 minutes.
With size costing the Lakers in some recent games, it makes sense to take a look at some centers on the free-agent market to see if any are worth signing ahead of the postseason.
Reaves believes Lakers need to shoot more 3-pointers
Neither Bradley nor Thompson can shoot it from distance, but that is something Austin Reaves recently said that the team needs to do more of moving forward.
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