The Lakers are a woeful 1-9, and while Kobe Bryant is imparting wisdom even as he fires away at a league-high clip from the field, there’s plenty of uneasiness amid the team’s woeful start. Changes appear to be on the horizon, as we detail amid the latest from downtrodden Lakerland:
- A torn right hamstring will keep Ryan Kelly out for at least six weeks, tweets Mike Trudell of Lakers.com. Injuries to both hamstrings have limited the power forward to just three games this season. Kelly is on a guaranteed contract that runs through 2015/16.
Earlier updates:
- Xavier Henry would likely be the odd man out if the Lakers decide to sign Quincy Miller, who’s auditioning for the team, according to Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding. Henry re-signed with the Lakers this summer to a fully guaranteed one-year contract for $1.082MM.
- The Lakers offered Pau Gasol a no-trade clause in negotiations this offseason, the new Bulls big man told reporters, including Beto Duran of ESPN Radio Los Angeles (Twitter link). Gasol admitted that he’ll always feel “some level of attachment” to the Lakers but said that he’d reached a point emotionally where he needed to move on, as Duran shares in another pair of tweets. The 34-year-old added that he was looking for greater motivation in his next stop and said that the prospect of another losing season in purple-and-gold helped sway him to instead sign with the Bulls (Twitter links).
- Coach Byron Scott put much of the blame on the frontcourt for the team’s defensive shortcomings, but Carlos Boozer disputes the idea that the big men are mostly responsible for the team’s league-worst scoring defense, notes Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News.