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With the disappointing news that Dwight Howard, Pau Gasol and Jordan Hill will all be out with injuries, the Lakers opened up a roster spot by cutting 6’2 rookie guard Darius Johnson-Odom who was currently playing for the Lakers D-League affiliate the Los Angeles D-fenders.
The Lakers are going to be extremely short handed in the front court with Dwight Howard being out indefinitely with a torn labrum it was announced Monday. This was on the heel of word that Pau Gasol suffered a concussion in Sunday’s game against the Denver Nuggets after he was hit in the nose inadvertently by Javale Mcgee. Jordan Hill also has a hip injury that will be evaluated further on Monday to determine the extent of the injury.
Darius Johnson-Odom was the Lakers’ 55th pick in this years draft coming out of Marquette and was playing well since he was assigned to the D-Fenders. In 12 games with the Los Angeles D-Fenders, Darius led the team in scoring at 20.6 ppg and was averaging 5.3 assist per game.
The Lakers roster now stands at 14 and they will have the ability to pick up another player to possibly help out with the suddenly depleted front court. The Lakers are over the salary cap so the Lakers will only be able to offer minimum contracts to any available free agents.
- Fern Rea “@fullcourtfern”
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