FRIDAY, 2:11pm: The team is conducting Majok’s workouts with its D-League affiliate in mind, and not the NBA roster, Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding tweets.
TUESDAY, 11:02pm: The Lakers are bringing in Ater Majok for a series of workouts, according to Shams Charania of RealGM. The 6’11” Majok was selected 58th overall by Los Angeles in the 2011 draft and appeared on the Lakers’ summer league team in 2012 but is yet to see any regular season NBA action since being drafted. Los Angeles is also reportedly eyeing Quincy Miller, who is similarly slated to work out for the club this week. However, Charania cautions that the pair of players’ auditions for the team are unrelated, suggesting that there’s a shot both of them end up signing deals.
The Lakers’ roster currently sits at a league-maximum 15 players, but the non-guaranteed contracts of Ronnie Price and Wayne Ellington could be waived to make room for one or both of Majok and Miller. Price and Ellington’s pacts are set to become partially guaranteed if kept on the books past November 15th, and the latter of the duo has just been provided an indefinite leave of absence to mourn the loss of his father.
The NBA granted the Lakers a disabled player exception worth $1,498,680 as a result of the season-ending injury to rookie Julius Randle, but there’s been no indication that the team would spend any more than the minimum salary to bring in Majok, who has spent time in Slovakian, Belarusian, German and Korean leagues since being drafted in 2011. At 27-years-old, Majok would be older than a typical rookie, but his experience might benefit a young Lakers’ roster that’s lacked depth in the season’s early going.
I have a feeling that since the Lakers are not in danger of being in Luxury tax territory, they will allow Ellington’s deal to become fully guaranteed and then waive him, in the wake of his personal tragedy.
Well, Ellington’s deal only becomes partially guaranteed after Saturday, and wouldn’t become fully guaranteed until January, but I do think it would be bad form for the Lakers to cut him before Saturday in light of the situation.
–Chuck
Waive Price and keep Ellington. We need shooters for floor spacing. Clarkson can be a backup PG