Lakers Set To Work Out 2 Champion Big Men, Including Former LeBron James Teammate

LA is on the hunt for a Mo Bamba replacement.

Your Los Angeles Lakers are apparently still interested in filling the open spot on their 15-man standard roster, and seem to be hopeful that they can replace injured big man Mo Bamba, out for perhaps the rest of the year with a high left ankle sprain.

Per Shams Charania and Jovan Buha of The Athletic, the LA front office is auditioning two veteran centers who both most recently washed out with the Chicago Bulls: LeBron James' former Cleveland Cavaliers comrade Tristan Thompson and Tony Bradley.

Thompson, an 11-year vet, was the starting center on LBJ's 2016 title-winning Cleveland Cavaliers club. Across 730 career regular season games (including 478 starts), he holds averages of 9.0 points on 51.9% shooting from the field, 8.4 rebounds, 1.0 assists and 0.7 blocks. Most recently, he split his time between three NBA clubs during the 2021-22 season (the Sacramento Kings, Indiana Pacers, and Bulls), averaging 6.0 points and 6.2 rebounds per. Chicago was in desperate need of a backup big behind Nikola Vucevic for its playoff run, and Thompson was so lackluster that he was basically supplanted by 6'5" forward Derrick Jones Jr. for the gig in the postseason.

Bradley, who won a title at the University of North Carolina, was actually teammates with Thompson in Chicago, though Thompson was brought in to replace Bradley as a reserve center due to Bradley's ineptitude at the position. Chicago waived the 25-year-old big man last month to add ex-Laker Patrick Beverley off the buyout market.

Adding either player would not really solve LA's Mo Bamba problem (Wenyen Gabriel is the current primary backup five behind Anthony Davis), but then again, at this point in the season, there aren't a ton of better options available on the market.

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