Lakers release 2010 summer-league roster
I'll have more later from Devin Ebanks and Derrick Caracter, both of whom talked to reporters after a summer-league practice. For now, here is the Lakers' summer-league roster, which was released Friday.
#4 Derrick Caracter, forward/center, 6 feet 9, 275 pounds, Texas El Paso, rookie
#3 Devin Ebanks, forward, 6-9, 210, West Virginia, rookie
#8 Gerald Green, forward, 6-8, 200, Gulf Shores Academy (Texas), sixth season
#31 Robert Kurz, forward, 6-9, 230, Notre Dame, third season
#7 Ibrahim Jaaber, guard, 6-2, 170, Pennsylvania, rookie
#34 Ben McCauley, forward, 6-9, 237, North Carolina State, rookie
#36 Andrew Naymick, center, 6-11, 235, Michigan State, third season
#32 Frank Robinson, guard, 6-4, 193, Cal State Fullerton, second season
#15 Tyler Sanborn, center, 6-10, 270, Guilford College (N.C.), rookie
#44 Courtney Sims, center, 6-11, 245, Michigan, fourth season
#2 D.J. Strawberry, guard, 6-5, 199, Maryland, fourth season
Below is the schedule
July 9 - Detroit (5 p.m. at Cox Pavilion)
July 10 - Denver (3 p.m. at Cox Pavilion)
July 12 - New York (1 p.m. at Cox Pavilion)
July 13 - Sacramento (5:30 p.m. at Thomas & Mack Center)
July 15 - San Antonio (1 p.m. at Cox Pavilion)
-- Mark Medina
DJ Strawberry..huh? I remember that he showed a little potential a few years ago. I wonder if he's got anything left?
Posted by: bronxlakerfan | July 02, 2010 at 03:45 PM
Here's something from Fanhouse:
Report: Lakers Sign Steve Blake
7/02/2010 6:28 PM ET By Tom Ziller
Steve Blake has agreed to terms on a four-year contract with the Los Angeles Lakers, according to John Canzano of The Oregonian.
A source close to the situation confirmed the deal to FanHouse's Sam Amick, and said the contract will play Blake $16 million over the next four seasons. There are no option years in the contract.
The Lakers have won consecutive championships with Derek Fisher, Jordan Farmar and Shannon Brown filling the point guard position, but all three became free agents this summer. Fisher reportedly turned down a one-year, $2.5 million contract offer from the Lakers today, and is in talks with the Cavaliers and Heat. Farmar has been tied only to the Pacers, and was not expected to be retained by L.A. under any scenario.
Blake split last season between the Blazers and the Clippers. A career 39-percent three-point shooter, Blake would seem to fit the Lakers' needs well. With Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol handling scoring duties, the Lakers have needed a point guard who can shoot, make few mistakes and give effort on defense. Fisher has been an ace in all three categories in all 11 seasons he has spent in L.A., but at age 35 is losing what little quickness he had.
Blake,30, is far less tested in postseason play, having appeared in only 15 career playoff games. Fisher has appeared in 199 playoff games over his career, 183 of those coming with the Lakers.
The Lakers could still keep Fisher if the parties can reach a compromise; as L.A. owns Fisher's Bird rights, it would not need to use the mid-level exception (most of which is now assigned to cover Blake's salary) to sign Fisher to a multi-year deal.
Posted by: Noah | July 02, 2010 at 03:48 PM
Well that's interesting......
I guess Miller didn't react quick enough.
Welcome to LA Lakers Mr. Blake!
Posted by: Fatty | July 02, 2010 at 03:53 PM
I guess that puts the Lakers in a little stronger bargaining position with Fisher. And maybe puts Shannon out of the picture?
Posted by: Fatty | July 02, 2010 at 03:55 PM
Noah,
It's confirmed. Steve Blake is officially a Laker. They signed him using most of the Mid-Level Exception (4years 16 million so about $4 million). Which means Mike Miller is off the table then.
Even should Fisher remain the starter Blake is everything that a Lakers PG should be (except defense though considering the lack of handchecking......). Run the offense....be a playmaker when necessary...AND shoot. He could possibly spell more minutes than Fisher and could possibly play SG at times which is good.
That also might mean Shannon is gone as a Laker and instead Sasha will be once again Kobe's back-up which can be beneficial considering Jordan in his limited time was more ball dominant and relied Sasha more to be a spot up shooter at places Jordan wanted to....which may or may not have been Sasha's best place to shoot.
Welcome to the other side of the Staples Center Steve Blake. The better locker room because as I always say:
Clippers suck today....Clippers will suck tomorrow....Clippers suck forever
(though they could actually be 2nd place in the Pacific Division next season considering how Phoenix is going to go on a decline with the lost Ama're Stoudemire.)
Posted by: KB Blitz | July 02, 2010 at 03:56 PM
Miller didn't want the Lakers money, so Blake gets the deal.
Good. He was the best unrestricted point guard available as a free agent, and the Lakers got him for a reasonable amount of money.
That shores up the PG position. Depending on how the Lakers structured the contract, they could have part of the MLE left. Or not.
One way they could have structured the deal is for a full MLE bucks this year ($5.8 million), with the contract going DOWN each season. That would help offset most of the other contracts going up.
Or it could be a flat 4-4-4-4. If that's the case, then they'd still have 1.8 million of the MLE left to spend, so they could make a slightly better than MLE level offer.
Or, at the other extreme, they could have started it somewhere around 3.6 million, with 8% raises each year. In that case, they'd still have about 2.2 million of the MLE left to spend.
Posted by: LongTimeLakerFan | July 02, 2010 at 03:57 PM
"Guard Steve Blake tips us off that he has agreed to sign a 4-year deal with the Los Angeles Lakers. Twitter" Reported by Hoopshype
~~That makes the offer on Mike Miller moot. What can they offer him? Shannon and Fisher are in danger of not being signed if they will not agree below 3m each.
Posted by: Edwin Gueco | July 02, 2010 at 03:58 PM
Nice.
Go Lakers!
Posted by: Rocky | July 02, 2010 at 04:00 PM
no J-critt on the summer league team?
Posted by: icelaker | July 02, 2010 at 04:02 PM
Blake split last season between the Blazers and the Clippers. A career 39-percent three-point shooter, Blake would seem to fit the Lakers' needs well. With Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol handling scoring duties, the Lakers have needed a point guard who can shoot, make few mistakes and give effort on defense. Fisher has been an ace in all three categories in all 11 seasons he has spent in L.A., but at age 35 is losing what little quickness he had..
a LITTLE............ROTFLMAO................
thats's being a little....correction alot modest don't ya think.. He lost a little after the 1st threepeat. Not degrading fish he's come up big and I love the guy...History is about to repeat itself with fish turning down money and believing he deserves more. the playoffs are good and winning the ship is great,but there are 82 games B4 you get there. Players need to earn there money all of it.. one of the best thing bout fish is that he seems built like a rock,and was realitively injury free,but this is one year later, he shot bricks most of the season(give and take man)....I can talk about Bynum and luke also as far as injuries go but oh well....
P.S. You know what though at the end of the day the Lakers have themselves to blame and mayh always face these kinds of problems at least till lukes' gone...When you have guys like luke,(had Kwame) and odom who make certain saleries and often under produce you will always have a guy who believes they are worth so much more,and in fishers' case he seems most justified............
Posted by: VI Lakerfan | July 02, 2010 at 04:06 PM
Kurz is an intriguing player. Now that we signed Blake and Miller is probably out of the question, Kurz might be a guy to make the team at SF.
Wow we have Gerald Green. What happened to that guy, so much athleticism.
Go Lakers!
Posted by: Rocky | July 02, 2010 at 04:08 PM
Man, if we really have Steve Blake I will be so fricken happy! He's perfect.
What do we play for? RINGS!!!!
Lakers Today... Lakers Tomorrow... Lakers Forever.
GO LAKERS!!!
Posted by: Jon K. | July 02, 2010 at 04:09 PM
WHERE IS JAVARIS????
Posted by: A Friend | July 02, 2010 at 04:19 PM
Javaris is not a rookie. Summer league's for rooks. C'mon guys. You knew that.
Posted by: apop | July 02, 2010 at 04:27 PM
Gearld Green's a rookie. Cmon Guys, know what your talking about.
Posted by: dmck | July 02, 2010 at 05:23 PM
what happened to javaris crittenton?
Posted by: brian | July 02, 2010 at 05:33 PM
^^ hahahahahh
Posted by: asdfg | July 02, 2010 at 05:33 PM
Critterton's agent said that he hasn't been invited to Summer League by any of the 30 teams. Could the league blackball him for his role in the Arenas scandal? Damn that sucks!
Posted by: Just Another Fan | July 02, 2010 at 05:45 PM
apop - summer league's not just for rookies.
Posted by: dave m | July 02, 2010 at 05:52 PM
First,It's really a good news hearing the signing of Steve Blake.It's surely an upgrade in our PG position from the last season.If we can sign Mike miller and maybe sign Raja Bell for the minimum.Men!we are a heck of a team next season.if Brown leaves,then we'll have to pursue Morrow to have a better shooter.this will be our lineup:
C: Bynum,Shaq?/Powell
PF: Gasol,Odom,caracter
SF: Artest,Miller,Ebanks
SG: Bryant,Bell,Morrow(if Brown leaves)
PG: Fisher,Blake,Vuyacic
Isn't it a championship contending team?I smell 4th 3 peat with this lineup.
Posted by: rolly_dreamz | July 02, 2010 at 08:03 PM
Sweet move, now Lakers need to lock up Fish. 2 years @ $3.75 mil each should work. Fish knows there are other ways the Lakers can "show their love" after he retires. Blake should be able to take the starting job away from Fish, isn't that whats the signing is all about? Hopefully Fish doesnt need to average more than 20 min, that should work nicely. He's always in shape, one of the few Lakers who played all 82 games last season. He'll be that much more effective and less worry about fouling.
And he'll still be around...on and off the court.
Posted by: Big City Sid | July 02, 2010 at 09:02 PM
Rolly_Dreamz: you need to dream on with that lineup. Sign Miller, Bell, Morrow, Shaq. . WITH WHAT MONEY. . The Lakers have 1.8 million from the MLE and the rest are minimum contracts at around 1.3 million. Ill be happy if the Lakers re-sign Fisher at 3.5 million, Try to convince Raja Bell to take the 1.8 million remaining from the MLE and sign a backup big like Kurt Thomas or Joe Smith for the Veteran Minimum leaving the Lakers with a more realistic lineup of:
C: Bynum, Kurt Thomas
PF: Gasol, Odom, Caracter
SF: Artest,Walton, Ebanks
SG: Kobe, Bell, Vujacic
PG: Fisher, Blake
Posted by: Laker Fan | July 02, 2010 at 10:47 PM
Laker Fan:After reviewing your line-up.I would say it's still a solid team but i guess we'll have a weak line-up in the SF position considering luke is(almost always)our liability.I'm just keeping my finger's crossed that Ebank will quickly develope into an Ariza type player and contribute right away for our team coz I honestly lost hope with Luke.Lakers is just wasting their money to him.
Posted by: rolly_dreamz | July 03, 2010 at 12:18 AM
Gerald Green is one of the more interesting names on that list. If anyone has forgotten, Gerald came out the same year as Andrew Bynum and was projected by some as being a #3 pick of the draft. He ended up falling to the Celtics as a late 1st round pick. He had one good year with Boston and then was traded and dumped by a couple of other teams (Minny and Dallas?).
He's an elite athlete with good height and length, possessing good range on his J. If he's humbled and working hard, he could be an interesting acquisition opportunity.
Posted by: Ekstor | July 03, 2010 at 04:31 AM
WATCH - Lakers will offer 1.8 to Javaris Crittenton with the remaining money on the MLE, then they will sign Fisher with their Bird exception for around 3-4 million per year for two years. That will give us Fisher, Blake and Crittenton this year vs Brown, Farmar and Fisher last year. I'd say that's an upgrade and it will cost about the same. Look for a center at the vet minimum and were done. Mitch is pretty darn good.
Posted by: tomK | July 03, 2010 at 01:16 PM
I Think Lakers should sign 1 more center, Tim Thomas or X-North Cal..Haywood cant really remember to back up Bynum..
C-Bynum/Tim thomas/Brendan Haywood
PF-Gasol/Odom
SF-Artest/Walton
SG-Kobe/Bell/Vujacic
PG-Fish/Blake
Posted by: WiltPongs | July 04, 2010 at 02:18 AM
Mitch Kupchak is still trying to trade Bynum as we speak on 07/04 - The fact that Mitch had "never" publicly squashed the rumor of Bosh for Bynum trade truly indicated this trade had been discussed by Mitch and Toronto Raptors. Otherwise Mitch would have put this rumor to rest long time ago. Mitch is a snake, he will get rid of any player that he feels is losing their physical ability, just like what he's doing to Fisher - by low ball the offer to force D Fish out of town - after he dumps Fisher, he'll get rid of the injury prone Bynum.
Posted by: Joseph | July 04, 2010 at 03:28 AM
There is a hidden gem in that roster. No7 Ibrahim Jaaber. Fast, agile, can pass, can score and hustle D. Besides he is a good, positive guy. Hope he is in good shape for the games and i wish him to make the right impression
Posted by: Knows | July 04, 2010 at 06:00 PM
stinks for jaaber they have so much PG depth already..
Posted by: lakerssss | July 08, 2010 at 10:11 PM