Report: Lakers still looking to add center to roster through trade, free agency

With Christian Wood still recovering from knee surgery and their frontcourt depth shallow, the Lakers are reportedly looking for another signing at center.

Since the offseason, the Lakers have been on the hunt for a center. They were linked to Jonas Valančiūnas in free agency and, at Summer League, head coach JJ Redick spoke of a desire to add a “bruising” center, as he phrased it.

On top of that, injury further complicated matters late in the offseason. With Christian Wood currently recovering from knee surgery, the Lakers are short on center depth and are on the market still looking for solutions.

On Thursday, Shams Charania of ESPN reported that the franchise is looking for another center.

The Lakers have already signed another big, Christian Koloko, to a two-way deal. However, he has yet to receive clearance from the league’s fitness panel, so he’s unavailable to play.

Even when cleared, he’s still a two-way player who missed the entirety of last season. If the Lakers want a more immediate solution, they’ll need to find a player to sign and make room, given that their roster is full.

Shams didn’t clarify whether he meant free agency or trade, but regardless, the Lakers would have to make space. As things stand, they are at 15 players on the roster and are also right up against the second apron with no wiggle room to waive a player and sign a free agent. If they want an unsigned center like Bismack Biyombo, for example, they’d have to execute a salary dump trade.

On the other hand, if they pursue a current big like Valančiūnas of the Wizards, a trade might be easier so long as it’s a player-for-player deal. That can’t be done until December, though, when Valančiūnas is trade-eligible after signing in free agency this offseason.

During preseason, we saw JJ Redick play Hayes alongside AD for a brief moment. The minutes looked good, albeit it was a very small sample size in an unimportant game. If Hayes can improve under Redick’s leadership, it will ease some of these concerns and maybe be good enough for now while the team awaits Wood’s return.

But even then, Lakers fans saw how relying on Hayes and Wood as the center rotation comes with pitfalls last season. Lakers vice president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka is going to need to be working the phones quite a bit in the coming days, weeks and months to get the Lakers out of a tough position.

You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88.