NBA Free Agents 2011: Gilbert Arenas a No-Risk Prospect for Lakers

Kobe Bryant is losing ligaments, Lamar Odom is gone and the Clippers are actually running things. Honestly, there is nothing that Gilbert Arenas can do that would harm the Lakers anymore. 

The man formerly known as Agent Zero is now just some dude garnering zero interest. Nobody wants to touch the enigmatic guard that was once a superstar teams would jump at. 

Too bad Phil Jackson is no longer on the payroll, because this is the kind of player he would get the most out of. With a calming talk and some book selections, he would have Arenas on the right track again. 

But this is a new age, one in which the Lakers dump salary right before the season and hope their fans are fine with it. 

The fact is the Lakers need scoring, a point guard, depth and a player that could back-up Kobe Bryant. Gilbert Arenas is at best all of those things and at worst not a big deal anyway. 

Mark Medina of the LA Times notes that Gilbert Arenas would love to come to the Lakers in the hopes of reigniting his career. 

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The Lakers can't wax nostalgic on Arenas dropping a career-high 60 points against them when he played for the Washington Wizards in 2006. They can't afford to hold optimism that Arenas will suddenly become an NBA all-star again. They can't allow Arenas' L.A. hometown roots and Hollywood personality to convince them he'll fit right in with the Lakers. 

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I agree with Medina in that Arenas comes bearing a great deal of baggage. The former Wizards star has also lost more than a single step in his game. That means nothing, though.

Kobe Bryant is going to suit up for Sunday's game despite having a torn ligament in his shooting hand. At best, Bryant will play the rest of the season hurt. 

There is also the note of how this group struggled to find scoring once the starters were out in the all too brief preseason. 

The Lakers have had a huge trade nixed by the league, and the fallout cost them one Lamar Odom. Now their franchise player is going to play the rest of the way with one and a half hands. So tell me, how much worse can this all get?

Even if Arenas came back with a gun-toting incident, most would chalk it up to the Lakers just being dramatic again. 

There is nothing Arenas can do to sink a ship that is already taking on water. So the move is to snatch him up and cross the fingers, because that is how bad things have become in Laker Land. 

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