Report: Rasheed Wallace To Sign With Lakers

Didn't I tell you things were going to get interesting in the second half? I did, though admittedly, I didn't anticipate this particular... flavor of interesting. Rasheed Wallace, longtime Laker nemesis and lifetime insane person, is reportedly on the verge of signing with the Lakers. NECN, a New England media outlet, has the potentially alarming scoop:

CSNNE.com has learned that the former Boston Celtic forward plans to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers. . . .

His return to action has been rumored for weeks, fueled by a decent showing at Pro-Am tournament in North Carolina this summer.

It only became heightened by, according to league sources, a renewed conditioning regimen that apparently has him looking better than he has "in years."

With a roster of 14 players, the Lakers can add Wallace and not have to worry about waiving a player to make room.

His addition will likely fuel rumors that the Lakers will become even more aggressive in their decision to trade away Pau Gasol.

However, a front office executive whose team has had both internal and external discussions about Gasol, said the addition of Wallace will only be to strengthen their bench.

Sheed was a massive talent in olden days but disappointed in his one year as a Celtic, which was his last in the NBA. He was out of shape, questionably motivated and poisoned the Celtic offense with his unstoppable need to launch terrible shots from behind the arc. And he's now 37, only about a month younger than one Derek Fisher.

Look, I'm all for taking some risks with this Lakers team, which isn't good enough to compete for a title in its current form. They're not going to do anything special unless they pull off a megatrade that brings in Dwight Howard or fills multiple holes with quality players or they get some longshot bets to pay off. A Sheed signing definitely falls into that last category. But he's very unlikely to provide better production off the bench than Josh McRoberts, who's buried in Mike Brown's rotation for reasons that aren't clear. One possibility is that the front office hopes Sheed's decent enough to allow McBobs to be moved in another deal. As usual, we have to see what other moves are cooking before we evaluate this one. But as a first step, it's curious to say the least.

Follow Dex on Twitter @dexterfishmore.