Roster Improvement: Free Agents Now and Later?

Battle Tested20 wrote:Yeah Pietrus would sure be nice to get. If not, that's fine too. I've been with the crowd that says we should give Ebanks a real chance this year and finally see what we have with him.

Battle Tested20 wrote:Yeah Pietrus would sure be nice to get. If not, that's fine too. I've been with the crowd that says we should give Ebanks a real chance this year and finally see what we have with him.

lakerfan2 wrote:Anyone have Pietrus defensive stats vs Wade/Lebron/Melo/Durant/Kobe?

Josh Howard To The Spurs?

Marc J. Spears ‏@SpearsNBAYahoo

Free agent forward Josh Howard to visit Spurs on Monday, source tells Y! Sports.

Ariza3 wrote:watching the videos in the barnes appreciation thread im actually looking forward to seeing ebanks play backup sf. i dont think we need to spend money and get a sf. he had solid games when given minutes. he hustled, played good d, was lost a little bit sometimes but thats correctable, shot that midrange and close shots well, cut to the basket and finished, hes athletic and young, and still improving.

i like him and hope that when the season starts hes still the backup sf and sharing minutes only with metta. also watching those videos (especially barnes near trip-doub against the mavs) metta was looking good in that game and was attacking. if hes in better shape it should be a great thing to see.

i think at the SF spot with a new and improved (better than towards the end of the reg season) metta plus ebanks backing him up who was solid for us last season when given minutes and now hopefully improved a bit and now has a definite role, should thrive. i think were set at the SF spot and dont want ebanks to be shafted again this season. i think he'll be great filling in for metta on the bench

lakerfan2 wrote:Although Barbosa is better than Blake, he's not what we need at the backup PG. He doesn't play defense, and he's a SG in a PG body.

Yes, he'll come cheap, yes, he'll put up points. But, that's why we brought on Jamison and Meeks.

We need a PG that can handle the ball, take care of the ball, make the right decisions, and lead the floor. Being able to hit a 3 would be nice, but we just need a young guard to just be confident and be in control.

lakerfan2 wrote:I'd rather have Ebanks play defense, then T-Mac do anything.

lakerswiz wrote:I'm not really too sure who I'd take from those available, but damn...

How crazy would it be if T-Mac came on over? I just have a hard time wrapping my head around it.

He used to be so damn good. And then just fell off.

Here we have Kobe, been in the league longer and at their closest point was always a few steps ahead of T-Mac. And T-Mac might come over to spectate from the bench.

I dunno. Just sort of strange to me. T-Mac is like Steve Francis to me at this point. A great player from my childhood. It's weird he's still around.

JSM wrote:

lakerfan2 wrote:I'd rather have Ebanks play defense, then T-Mac do anything.

I'm not satisfied with our depth at SF. When Ebanks loses favor with Brown, again, which he will at some point in the season -- whether it's his fault or not -- Brown's option is then to play Kobe as backup SF and increase his minutes. Jamison could see some of that time too, but that's putting too much faith in Brown. I'd gladly take T-Mac for that insurance role for a 1 year, vet min guaranteed deal in a heart beat.

Ariza3 wrote:Nate Robinson's contract is $400k...kinda wish we went after him. Nate and Meeks as the backup guards would have been pretty cool..barring that we got rid of Blake. But oh well, im okay with Blake i guess, if he does what he should, just wish we got Nate. dirt cheap.

Center Court wrote:

JSM wrote:

lakerfan2 wrote:I'd rather have Ebanks play defense, then T-Mac do anything.

I'm not satisfied with our depth at SF. When Ebanks loses favor with Brown, again, which he will at some point in the season -- whether it's his fault or not -- Brown's option is then to play Kobe as backup SF and increase his minutes. Jamison could see some of that time too, but that's putting too much faith in Brown. I'd gladly take T-Mac for that insurance role for a 1 year, vet min guaranteed deal in a heart beat.

If Mitch felt like that'd have been the case, I'm guessing Barnes would be a Laker again.

I still think Pietrus can be a huge addition to this bench but not sure that Mitch and co feel like spending even more money.

Artest/Ebanks/Jamison/Kobe/Clark can all play the 3 on some level.

JSM wrote:^ Only $400k is guaranteed, if he makes it past 1/1 then it becomes fully guaranteed and they're on the hook for the rest.