Lakers News: Health Status Of Wenyen Gabriel Updated

Could the Lakers be getting frontcourt help soon?

Your Los Angeles Lakers could be getting front line reinforcements soon.

Jovan Buha of The Athletic reports that backup power forward/center Wenyen Gabriel is nearing a return to action for L.A., and has had his health status upgraded to day-to-day ahead of the team's next contest Friday night.

The 6'9" vet has been absent since being felled by a sprained left shoulder on December 6th.

Gabriel is averaging 5.1 points a game on 59.7% field goal shooting, while providing an athletic, springy option for head coach Darvin Ham as essentially the club's third or fourth big man behind All-Star power forward LeBron James and All-NBA center Anthony Davis. He's also averaging 3.7 rebounds per contest in a fairly modest 13.6 minutes a night.

Gabriel seems likely to have his non-guaranteed $1,878,720 2022-23 salary for the 2022-23 season guaranteed by the Lakers thanks to his solid play thus far. He has supplanted veteran center Damian Jones in Ham's rotations for now, and has been sharing key reserve big man minutes with Thomas Bryant. The 6'10" Bryant is averaging 14.6 minutes a night, more or less on par with Gabriel's run. Jones, not Gabriel, seems like L.A.'s most likely next candidate to be waived should the team need to offload any current players, given the relative import of Gabriel to the roster.

L.A. will have its next chance to use Gabriel on Friday, when the team squares off against reigning two-time MVP center Nikola Jokic and the rest of the 17-10 Denver Nuggets. Los Angeles could certainly use all the size it can get against a lengthy Denver front line tomorrow.

Our fingers are crossed that Gabriel returns happy and healthy posthaste! L.A. has had an erratic few weeks without him, due in large part to depth issues, so any time a key role player returns represents an excellent opportunity for your Los Angeles Lakers to get back to their winning ways at Crypto.com Arena.