Lamar Odom
His name is always included in trade rumors and the Lakers in fact wanted to send him to Memphis for Gasol but this time he's the team most valuable piece to include in a trade with a 14-million contract that expires after 2008-09. The other option is to keep him to have an even taller and skilled frontcourt or try again to move him to the guard spot, with Kobe as small forward.

Ira Newble, DJ Mbenga and Coby Karl
Newble and Mbenga are unrestricted free agents and are unlikely to be with the team in 2008-09 although Mbenga could return to fill a roster spot if needed. The same goes for Karl, the Lakers can use a 1-year option for him.

Rumors...
The Lakers may try to acquire a couple of free agents that don't expect much money. July rumors talked about a possible trade with the Kings that would include Ron Artest and Lamar Odom, but finally Artest went to Houston.

Rumors archive.

Dwayne Mitchell
He's a 6’5” 220-pound free-agent guard out of Louisiana Lafayette, who played the majority of last season for the Iowa Energy of the NBA Development League before leaving in February to join Brose Baskets Bamberg in Germany. He played for the Lakers 2008 Summer-Pro League team, and in 6 games he averaged 6.7 points on .619 shooting, 1.5 rebounds, 1.0 assists and 0.83 steals in 15.0 minutes.

Sun Yue

The "Chinese Magic Johnson" is a 6-foot-9, 212-pound point guard that was selected by the Lakers in the second round of the 2007 NBA Draft. A member of the Chinese National Team, he played with the Aoshen club in Beijing last year. Although Yue is naturally a point guard, he could play shooting guard if necessary.

Sasha Vujacic
He was a restricted free agent, and with the Lakers ready to match any offer sheet for him, he received no offers from other teams. He said that if he didn't get a satisfactory contract from the Lakers he could leave to play in Europe but finally he agreed to a 3-year, 15-million deal to stay in Los Angeles. Retaining Vujacic was the main goal for the Lakers postseason. He was a key member of the team in 2007-08 becoming a long distance threat from the bench and playing good defense in the playoffs. He averaged 8.8 points in 17.2 minutes during the regular season and shot 45.4% from the field, including 43.7% from 3-point range. In the playoffs, he averaged 21.7 minutes, 8.1 points and shot 39.9%, including 39.2% from beyond the three-point line.

Ronny Turiaf
Restricted free agent Ronny Turiaf signed an offer sheet with the Warriors for about $17 million over 4 years. The Lakers had the right to match it but decided not to do it. Despite Turiaf being a fan favorite and a big energy provider, he wasn't going to have many minutes in the lakers crowded frontcourt.