Lakers News: LA Will Audition DeMarcus Cousins Next Week For Open Roster Spot

The four-time All-Star could fit well as a backup big.

Your Los Angeles Lakers have wasted no time exploring potential new additions to their standard 15-man roster since the window to sign players to 10-day contracts opened up yesterday.

Yesterday, LA worked out veteran shooting guard Tyler Dorsey, most recently with the Dallas Mavericks on a two-way deal. This morning, sources have informed Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report that a (technical) former Laker, and a former four-time All-Star, will be working out for the team. Cousins could certainly be worth a flyer on a 10-day contract.

DeMarcus Cousins, who reportedly has been getting his reps in six days a week in Las Vegas while hoping for just such an NBA opportunity, is set to work out for Los Angeles brass at some point next week.

The four-time All-Star could fit well as a reserve big man for a Lakers team struggling somewhat without Anthony Davis, despite the excellent offensive play of replacement starter Thomas Bryant. Cousins remains pretty athletic, and could certainly help the Lakers' interior scoring and defense in limited minutes. The 6'10", 270-pound behemoth played valuable minutes as Bobby Portis's primary backup with the Milwaukee Bucks (Brook Lopez was injured at the time) and eventual MVP Nikola Jokic's main understudy with the Denver Nuggets during the 2021-22 season.

He may no longer be the All-Star, ball-handling super-freak he was in his athletic prime before tearing his Achilles and ACL, but Cousins is still effective in small doses, and would be a very helpful stopgap addition to LA's big man rotation, at least while Davis continues to recuperate from his right foot stress injury.

Last year, Boogie averaged 9.1 points on 46.6% shooting, 5.8 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 0.9 steals in 16.9 minutes for Milwaukee across 17 games (five starts). He went on to notch 8.9 points on 45.6% shooting, 5.5 boards, and 1.7 dimes across 31 games for Denver (he had signed a series of 10-day deals before the Nuggets ultimately signed him for the season's stretch run). Why the Nuggets opted to bring in ex-Lakers center DeAndre Jordan as Jokic's primary backup this season, instead of trying a second season with Cousins, is a bit confounding, considering that Jordan, who just can no longer really move laterally, was so bad for LA that he was cut midseason.

This Lakers core of LeBron James and Anthony Davis does have some experience with Cousins, as the big inked a $3.5 million contract with the club ahead of the team's title-winning 2019-20 season. The two-time All-NBA Second Team honoree never got a chance to actually suit up in a game for LA at the time, after tearing his ACL in a preseason workout. He was still given a championship ring by the team, even though Los Angeles eventually waived him to sign Markieff Morris midseason.

Rumors swirled earlier this season that Cousins might join another former 2021-22 Laker, Dwight Howard, in Taiwan's T1 League this season to continue his pro career. It appears for now, at least, that Cousins is hoping to catch on with an NBA franchise for the second half of 2022-23.