NBA Rumors: Los Angeles Lakers Smart to Monitor Gilbert Arenas

The Los Angeles Lakers' Lord of the Rings like quest for point guard help has reportedly drawn them to the lair of one Free Agent Zero.

According to Yahoo! Sports NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski, several Lakers officials attended a private workout for Gilbert Arenas in southern California on Sunday. The three-time All-Star was said to have performed well and moved rather briskly, thereby allaying some concerns about his troublesome knee and general conditioning at the age of 30.

Whether Arenas, a native Angeleno, did enough to convince the Purple and Gold to extend him an offer at a prorated share of the veteran's minimum remains to be seen, though doing so wouldn't exactly be a bad idea. To be sure, Arenas, who was cut by the Orlando Magic via the one-time amnesty clause in the new collective bargaining agreement, isn't the budding superstar and 25-point-per-game scorer he once was, thanks in large part to recurring injuries and a 50-game ban with which he was slapped for bringing guns into the locker room.

Still, at less than $1.4 million and with the likes of Derek Fisher and Steve Blake weighing down the Lakers' backcourt alongside Kobe Bryant, the Lakers wouldn't exactly be unwise to give Arenas a shot. At worst, LA would be out about a million bucks or so as a byproduct of exploring their options for point guard improvement on the market. 

At best, if head coach Mike Brown slots Arenas into the proper role, the Lakers would have a guard who's motivated, experienced, can play either backcourt position and is more than capable of pouring in 15-20 points on any given night.

Anything in between would still represent a significant upgrade over what little the Lakers have in the way of non-Black-Mamba backcourt play at present.

That's not to say GM Mitch Kupchak should simply sign Arenas and be comfortable with that. Agent Zero is hardly the long-term solution to the Lakers' woes. As such, the team may be better served to keep poking around about the availability of Rajon Rondo, Ramon Sessions and Jonny Flynn, among others.

In the meantime, Arenas represents a low-risk, high-reward option that may just be too good to pass up, particularly given the Lakers' needs and their fading hopes in the Western Conference.

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