On Saturday morning, the Los Angeles Lakers announced that the team had waived veteran center Andrew Bogut after the Aussie played 25 games and mostly took on a mentoring role in the locker room.
The move allows the Lakers to open up a roster spot and be more flexible, while also allowing Bogut to pursue a position with a playoff team that needs a center capable of defending at the rim.
With the Lakers sitting on an 11-27 record, the overt move to playing younger players in favor of veterans like Bogut is only a matter of time. In fact, Bogut had not appeared in the Lakers' previous two games after Brook Lopez returned from injury. With young prospects like Thomas Bryant and Ivica Zubac also fighting for scraps and a coach that prefers to play with smaller lineups, the move to release Bogut is probably the best move for both parties.
The Aussie recovered from injury, proved he can still play and now can go find a team that has a chance to play in the postseason.
Back in December, Bogut spoke to the frustrations of the young players in the locker room and described the Lakers' environment like so: "You come into a situation like this sometimes where kind of guys don't know if they're coming or going."
Less than two weeks after uttering those words, it appears Bogut has gone.
The open roster spot allows the Lakers to try out free agents on 10-day contracts and possibly bring in a shooter. The Lakers currently rank last in the NBA in three-point shooting percentage. In addition, the extra roster spot offers flexibility to take on an extra player if the team executes a trade before the deadline in February.
