The Los Angeles Lakers either want to take a longer look at center Damian Jones or they need to hold on to him while they scour the league for options to upgrade their team in the middle. But the reason doesn’t matter for Jones, he’s going to be a Laker for another 10 days after the Lakers sign him to a new deal on Thursday, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Jones has played sparingly over his brief Laker tenure. He has played 31 minutes in just three games, including getting the start on March 3 against the Sacramento Kings. The Kings start (0 points, 1 rebound in 14:41) wasn’t quite as intriguing as the other two games Jones played with LeBron James, where he scored a total of 12 points in just around the same amount of minutes he played against the Kings.
Especially with Davis out, Jones gives the Lakers a lob threat that they haven’t had all season. Lobs were a major part of their success last season, particularly with JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard supporting the already elite lob threat of Anthony Davis.
The NBA trade deadline is on March 25 and another potential above the rim threat the Lakers have been connected to as a buyout candidate is Cleveland’s Andre Drummond.
