Lakers Rumors: LA Lakers Must Make Stronger Push to Sign Gilbert Arenas

The LA Lakers don’t have a legit backup for Kobe Bryant and there’s a great option just waiting for the call.

Why haven’t the Lakers pursued Gilbert Arenas harder?

Agent Zero has had his share of legal issues, but those are a thing of the past. He learned his lesson, paid the price and is trying to rewrite the last few chapters in his NBA career script. The LA native wants to play here, something that certainly matter in this day and age.

While two knee surgeries have sapped away the supreme first-step quickness of three or four years ago, he is still a very valuable commodity in this league.

ESPN’s Marc Stein reported that the Lakers have shown very little interest in Arenas at a time when the Lakers locker room is already incredibly fragile.

I don’t buy that line of logic. This locker room is littered with guys that have championship experience and adding a goofy but harmless personality isn’t going to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. (Kudos if you got the Kobe divorce reference.)

I think Agent Zero can provide 20-25 minutes off the bench of productive play that features a solid mid-range jumper and a keen sense for finding the open man.

Remember when he dropped 60 points on the Lakers back in ’06? He knows how to play the game and his ego is gone at this point. Arenas knows he’s nothing more than a sixth man and that makes things much easier.

More importantly, he is the only free agent left that can actually score and is cheap. The entire team is learning a new system and everyone is going to need an adjustment period. Arenas still has time to fit in and be a piece of new coach Mike Brown’s system.

If the Lakers go into the new season with a grand total of one shot creator (Kobe), and two ball handlers in Derek Fisher and Steve Blake that can’t create their own shots, it’s going to be a very ugly year in Los Angles.

And I’m not talking about the team that wears blue and red. 

Signing Arenas is a low risk move that can potentially have a huge payoff.