With injuries up and down their roster, the Los Angeles Lakers are seemingly interested in every available player via trade or free agency. Currently, the Lakers and Cavaliers have had talks surrounding Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum while they also checked in on the availability of Toronto Raptors point guard Kyle Lowry.
While they’ve already made one addition in signing point guard Kendall Marshall, it sounds like the Lakers are interested in another player hitting the free agent market via Ismail Senol of NTV SPOR in Istanbul:
Hidayet Türkoğlu won’t listen any offers from Europe. He wants to stay in the NBA. Lakers and Hawks are interested.
— Ismail Senol (@ismailsenol) January 3, 2014
Turkoglu is expected to be waived today by the Orlando Magic after playing in just 11 games during the 2012-13 season. He was also suspended 20 games for violating the NBA’s anti-doping policy and it sounds like he’s attempting to make a comeback this season.
The 34-year-old forward was a big piece of the Magic 2009 NBA Finals team that eventually lost in five games to the Lakers. A small forward for most of his career, Turkoglu would give the Lakers another three-point shooter if they want to add more scoring punch to their bench.
With six straight losses and their window to get back into the playoff race, it sounds like Mitch Kupchak is trying to get the roster to be somewhat competitive.
