The Los Angeles Lakers are a little bit closer to having an idea about which available center they will bring on the roster to help them fill the void left by DeMarcus Cousins’ recent knee injury. We heard earlier this week that the Lakers were bringing in a trio of veteran centers for workouts and according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, two of them have already left a positive impression with the team.
Both Joakim Noah and Dwight Howard left impressions that they could be “helpful” to the Lakers season, according to Woj.
Speights was the only one who wasn’t in the NBA at all last season as he spent the season with the Guangzhou Long-Lions of the Chinese Basketball Association. He averaged 22 points per game in 29 games in the Chinese league.
The one who had the best NBA season last year was Noah. While he played in only 42 games last season for the Memphis Grizzlies, he averaged seven points and six rebounds in about 16 minutes per game. If he were to join the Lakers, he would almost certainly do so as a backup to JaVale McGee. He was also a solid 71.6% free-throw shooter last season. He also went viral this week for his defensive desire in a pick-up game against Phoenix’s Devin Booker.
As for Howard’s last year, he spent most of his lone season with the Washington Wizards recovering from a serious of lower back and gluteal injuries that limited him to just eight games of action after averaging 16 points and 12 rebounds in 81 of 82 games the previous season for the Charlotte Hornets.
