Frank Vogel says Lakers aren’t targeting ‘specific skill set’ with final roster spot

If there was one thing that was sure to happen with one of the two open roster spots the Los Angeles Lakers had, it was that they were going to sign a center. Now that they have done so — adding Andre Drummond — there’s less certainty surrounding what they’re going to do with their final opening.

On Sunday, Jovan Buha and Jared Weiss of The Athletic reported that the Lakers were hoping to sign a 3-and-D player with their final roster spot, but Frank Vogel pushed back on the idea that the team had a particularly type of player in mind during his pregame media availability on Wednesday.

“I’m not sure exactly where that’s going to fall, but we’re continuing to monitor what guys could become available,” Vogel said. “I’m not really going to get into what specific team needs or positional needs we’re directing that towards, it’s really more about what players become available that have the most intrigue and that we feel like can help us the most, more than targeting a specific skill set or something like that.”

The truth is likely somewhere in between what was reported and what Vogel said. For example: if Otto Porter is bought out by the Orlando Magic before the playoff eligibility deadline on April 9, then he’d likely be the Lakers No. 1 target because of their need for size and shooting on the wing. However, if the best player to become available is a player at a position they’re already deep in, they’ll likely explore that avenue too, as evinced by their pursuit of LaMarcus Aldridge after the trade deadline.

In layman’s terms, the Lakers have one goal with their final roster spot that supersedes any other goal, and that’s to simply get better. That may be setting the bar too high given the history of post-trade deadline acquisitions, but that doesn’t mean they’re not going to try and find another Markieff Morris — and by “another Markieff Morris,” I don’t mean Markieff and Marcus’s long-lost triplet Marco Morris. Someone else besides that.

For more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts. You can follow this author on Twitter at @RadRivas.