Joseph Jamoralin

Trading away Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol for that hour before the trade was vetoed scared the crap out of me. Don’t get me wrong, the Lakers would have had arguably one of the best backcourt duos of all time (Black Mamba+CP3). Also, bringing in Dwight Howard into the mix would have been insane! But I started thinking “what if the Dwight trade didn’t go down?”

Obviously Odom and Gasol could not be replaced, but losing all that length got me worried. The trio of Odom, Gasol, and Bynum worked so well in the post and when one was injured I was never worried. However, let’s say we end up with Chris Paul and Dwight Howard. Who would be starting at power forward? and who would be  Dwight’s back up? Derrick Caracter? Here’s an even scarier thought… Let’s say the Chris Paul deal went through but we weren’t able to get Dwight. Our frontline would consist of injury-prone Bynum who has never played a full season and young, undersized, Derrick Caracter. We don’t know the permanent roster for this season but one thing is for sure, we need a legit back up center who could give our starting center some rest.

So I started thinking about guys I wouldn’t mind seeing in purple & gold. Some moves may seem unlikely, but here are some guys who could play some consistent minutes off the bench or play as a starter if needed.

In no specific order:

Chris “Birdman” Andersen would be a huge defensive threat in the middle. Granted he is not the player he used to be, he would still become a fan favorite easily with his ability to block shots and throw it down. He would provide tremendous hustle off the bench and has the ability to change the speed of the game.

DeAndre Jordan is a young athletic center with great talent. He started in 66 out of 80 games last season for the clips replacing injured Chris Kaman. Jordan definitely took advantage of this starting role and he put up some good numbers. He is a beast on the boards, superb on defense, and damn just watch. 

He works very well with Blake Griffin and they’re freaking hilarious together might I add. He is a restricted free agent, but I’m pretty sure he will resign with the clips. They would be stupid if they didn’t.

Tyson Chandler would make a great back up center, the problem is he is so overpaid. He put up 10.1 points, 9.4 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks per game last year. He was one of the biggest assets to the Mavericks last year, before he came into the picture they were unable to pass the first round for 4 seasons. He has the capability to “change the team’s defensive culture” and it was a vital piece to their first championship.

Anderson Varejao, yup Justin Guarini himself. He was plagued with injury last season but before that he had a decent run on offense. We all know that he is a beast on defense. What better team for him to go to than the team with the coach who made him who he is today? Coach Mike Brown deserves so much credit for turning this guy into an All-NBA Defensive team member.

The Return of Ronny Turiaf. I would not mind if Mitch brought Turiaf back to LA. During his time here he proved to be a good backup for Pau and LO. Over the years Ronny has developed his game, he has become more than just an energy player off the bench.

Other notable big men: Kris Humphries, Glen Davis, Ben Wallace, Anthony Tolliver, Nazr Mohammed, etc.