Los Angeles Lakers Roster 2010-2011

Los Angeles Lakers current roster, including new players, pictures, draft picks and playoff roster for the 2010-11 NBA Season.

2010-11 Season Roster: Changes made the Lakers even stronger...

  Lakers 2008-09 roster will include Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol

Despite winning their 16th NBA Championship the Lakers had no choice than to make changes to their 2009-10 roster.

Farmar, Mbenga, Powell and Morrison all left via free agency, but the Lakers got some interesting replacements in Steve Blake, Theo Ratliff and Matt Barnes while they were also able to retain free agents Derek Fisher and Shannon Brown. All of that without spending too much money.

The changes did nothing but make the roster stronger while all the players from the core group, those who saw more minutes last season, are under contract. The list includes D-Fish, Kobe, Pau, Bynum, Artest, Odom, Sasha, Brown and Walton.

With the improved roster added to the fact that Phil Jackson decided to coach for one more year, the Lakers are in good position to go for the three-peat without worrying about Lebron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh joining forces in the East.

On this page:
Complete Roster
Rumors
They arrived
They stay
They left
Draft picks

Related:
2010-11 Tickets
2009-10 Roster

This is the 2010-2011 Los Angeles Lakers roster

Guards:
No. Player Position Ht Wt Yrs DOB more
5 Steve Blake Point Guard 6-3 172 7 2/26/1980 profile buy jersey
2 Derek Fisher Point Guard 6-1 210 14 8/9/1974 profile buy jersey
12 Shannon Brown Shooting Guard 6-4 211 4 11/29/1985 profile buy jersey
24 Kobe Bryant Shooting Guard 6-6 205 14 8/23/1978 profile buy jersey
10 Trey Johnson Guard / Small Forward 6-5 218 1 8/30/1984 profile buy jersey
Forwards:
No. Player Position Ht Wt Yrs DOB   more
15 Ron Artest Small Forward 6-6 244 11 11/13/1979 profile buy jersey
9 Matt Barnes Small Forward 6-7 226 7 3/9/1980 profile buy jersey
3 Devin Ebanks Small Forward 6-9 215 R 10/28/1989 profile buy jersey
4 Luke Walton Small Forward 6-8 235 7 3/28/1980 profile buy jersey
7 Lamar Odom Small and Power Forward 6-10 230 11 11/6/1979 profile buy jersey
1 Joe Smith Forward 6.10 225 15 7/26/1975 profile buy jersey
45 Derrick Caracter Power Forward 6-9 265 R 5/4/1988 profile buy jersey
16 Pau Gasol Power Forward / Center 7-0 250 9 7/6/1980 profile buy jersey
Centers:
No. Player Position Ht Wt Yrs DOB   more
50 Theo Ratliff Power Forward / Center 6-10 235 15 4/17/1973 profile buy jersey
17 Andrew Bynum Center 7-0 285 5 10/27/1987 profile buy jersey
Played but were traded:
18 Sasha Vujacic Shooting Guard 6-7 205 6 3/8/1984 profile buy jersey

Note: Yrs means complete NBA seasons.

Head Coach: Phil Jackson
Assistant Coaches:
(they are allowed to be on the bench)
 
Frank Hamblen
Brian Shaw
Jim Cleamons
Chuck Person
Special Assistant Coaches:
 
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Craig Hodges
Athletic Trainer: Gary Vitti

Rumors

Rumors
Feb 9: Reports say the Lakers were in conversations with Denver trying to trade Carmelo Anthony for Andrew Bynum... but the Lakers deny it and in fact it would make no sense. Despite all Bynum struggles and injuries such a trade would reduce the frontcourt size, hurting this year's championship hopes. Not to mention that adding a star like Anthony would have big salary implications in the future for a team that is currently way over the salary cap. So this trade is very unlikely. The trade deadline is Feb. 24.----

Derek Fisher stays, Steve Blake is the new backup point guard and the Lakers wanted to bring Raja Bell to complete the backcourt but since Bell signed with Utah the Lakers are again trying to bring Shannon Brown back. (Aug. 5 update: Brown will stay). / Including Fisher and Brown, the arrival of Barnes and Ratliff and the two draft picks Devin Ebanks and Derrick Caracter, the Lakers have 14 players under contract, which means the roster is complete and ready to go, so there won't be more changes... For the preseason games the Lakers invited Trey Johnson and Drew Naymick. Although some believed one of them could have made the final roster, the Lakers waived them. Rumors archive


They arrived:

Steve BlakeSteve Blake
With many backcourt players leaving (Farmar) or about to do it (Fisher and Brown), the Lakers first deal done was with point guard Steve Blake, who agreed to a 4-year $16-million contract. Blake, 30, is a pass-first player with a nice three-point touch. Last season he averaged 7.3 points and 4.8 assists while shooting 39.5% from 3-point range in 80 games splitting time with the Clippers and the Trail Blazers. He is a good defender on the ball, with strong mentality and although he does nothing fancy or spectacular he's a solid player that will be an excellent backup for Derek Fisher.

Matt Barnes
Free agent forward from Orlando, Barnes decided to sign a two-year $3.6 million deal with the Lakers (with a player option for the second year) instead of a more lucrative contract offered from the Lebron-less Cavaliers.

He averaged 8.8 points and 5.5 rebounds in his one season in Orlando where drew attention with his confrontation with Kobe Bryant that included pretending to throw an inbounds pass directly at Kobe's face, among mutual elbows and trash talking.

 

Theo Ratliff
The 37 year-old big man joined the Lakers for the 2010-11 season with a one-year deal worth the veterans' minimum of $1.35 million.

Ratliff has played for 8 teams in 15 NBA seasons with career averages of 7.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 2.5 blocks.

He is a defensive specialist, was a key part of the 76ers' team that lost to the Lakers in the 2001 Finals and led the league in blocks per game in 2001, 2003 and 2004.

Joe Smith
The 6-10, 225 lbs. veteran power forward arrived from New Jersey in the Sasha Vujacic trade. He's 35 and has played for 11 teams in his 15 NBA seasons after being selected with the top pick in 1995.

Smith is making $1.4 million this season, has a decent mid-range jump shot and will be providing a handful of minutes of rest to the frontcourt regulars. He averaged 9.3 minutes, 3 points and 2.5 rebounds a game last season playing for the Hawks.

 

Trey Johnson
A surprising addition for the Lakers' final regular season game, Johnson, who played 5 preseason games for L.A., went straight from the Development League to the NBA playoffs. He was called to replace Steve Blake who missed some games with chicken pox.

The 6-5 guard/forward has spent the last 4 seasons playing for the Bakersfield Jam of the D-League, with brief interrupitions to play 4 games with Cleveland in 2009 and a couple of 10-day contracts with Toronto this season. In the D-League he has averaged 20.7 points, 4.7 assists and 3.8 rebounds in 36.0 minutes, including a league second-best 25.5 points per game this year.

They stay

Phil Jackson
Once again Jackson, who turns 65 in September, took his time to decide whether he would come back as the Lakers coach. After the usual medical tests and saying he was "leaning towards retiring" he decided to go for his 12th championship and the 4th three-peat of his career in what will most surely be his last coaching season.

And he returned in style: "I got a message from on high … that said, 'Phil, you've got to come back, there is a need to fulfill the prophecy. You know 12 is a holy number and 11 (championships) just doesn't fill that...'
"So I listened to my doctors and watched the sunrise and the sunset a few times and voila, I'm back."

There's still no information about how much he will earn but probably he will take a minor pay cut from the $12 million he made in 2009-10.

 

Derek Fisher
He was the Lakers top free agent priority and after 12 days of negotiations D-Fish accepted a 3-year contract believed to be worth about $10.5 million, including a player option in the third year.

Other than Kobe, he's the only member of the 2000-2001-2002 three-peat still with the team and proved in the 2010 playoffs how valuable he is for this team, holding his ground against the NBA's top point guards.

Fisher talked with the Heat who offered him the starting job alongside Lebron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh but he decided to stay with the Lakers: "At the end of the day, there's one person I could not turn away from, Kobe Bryant asked me to stay but supported whatever decision I made. He and I have played together for 11 seasons, came into the league together as kids, and he has been loyal to me even when others had doubts. We have won five championships together."

Brian Shaw
Three times champion as a player and 2 as an assistant, Shaw was the main candidate for the coaching position in Cleveland. But with Jackson's retirement still not decided he chose to withdraw his name from the Cavs' list (Cleveland hired Byron Scott, Lakers glory and top candidate to replace Jackson).

Now Shaw positioned himself as the natural successor when Jackson indeed retires, most probably when the 2010-2011 NBA season ends.

 

Shannon Brown
The high-flying guard officially opted out of a contract that would have paid him $2.15 million in 2010-11, making him an unrestricted free agent.

After weeks of negotiations and evaluating the market he decided to sign a new 2-year deal worth about $4.6 million with a player option in the second year.

Last season Brown averaged career highs of 8.1 points, 2.3 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 20.7 minutes.

They left:

Sasha VujacicSasha Vujacic
In which basically was a monetary decision the Lakers got involved on a 3-team deal that send him and a 2011 first round pick to the Nets in exchange for Joe Smith. With this move the Lakers save about $8 million in salary and luxury taxes. Vujacic was making $5.5 million but was not playing much this season, averaging only 1.8 points and 4.9 minutes a game.

He won two championships with the team and will always be remembered for making a couple of key free throws at the end of game 7 in the Finals against the Celtics last season.

Sasha was drafted by the Lakers with the 27th pick in 2004 and averaged 4.8 points, 1.7 rebounds and 1.2 assists in his 7 seasons at L.A. His best season was the 2007-08 where he averaged 8.8 points while shooting an impressive 43.7% from 3-point range

Jordan Farmar
The Lakers didn't want to spend big money on Farmar so they decided not to tender a qualifying offer of about $3 million, allowing him to be an unrestricted free agent who could sign wherever he wanted.

Although he repeatedly said he wanted to lead a team he signed a 3-year $12-million contract with the Nets and will be the backup point guard behind Devin Harris.

Farmar was drafted by the Lakers in 2006 with the 26th pick in the first round and averaged 6.9 points and 2.1 assists in 18.1 minutes in four years while winning two championships.

 

Josh Powell
He won two championships in his two years with L.A. but he averaged just 2.7 points and 1.8 rebounds in 9.2 minutes per game in the 2009-10 season and barely left the bench in the playoffs.

The Lakers had no salary cap available to bring him back and let him leave as a free agent.

Powell signed with the Atlanta Hawks, a good team that is trying to find the way to become a real contender in the East.

 

DJ Mbenga
Free agent, went to New Orleans. In 3 season saw few minutes but won 2 championships.
  Adam Morrison
Free agent. Also two championships won.

Lakers Draft Picks:

2nd round: On the same trade that brought Gasol to L.A. and sent the 2010 first round pick to the Grizzlies the Lakers received Memphis' second round pick which turned out to be the 43rd. overall. They used it to select Devin Ebanks, a 6-foot-9 athletic small forward out of West Virginia known as a defensive specialist.

Ebanks, 20, played two seasons for the Mountaineers, averaging 11.2 points, 7.9 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 69 games and helped the team reach the Final Four for the first time in 50 years while a sophomore. The Lakers like his defensive versatility and hope he can a back up for Ron Artest and Luke Walton

 

 

2nd round: with their own second round pick, the 58th overall, the Lakers took Derrick Caracter.

He's a 6-foot-9 forward with a decent shooting range that spent two seasons at Louisville before transferring to UTEP. Caracter was named to the All-Conference USA Second Team after averaging 14 points and eight rebounds as a junior, and ranked 16th in the country in field goal percentage (56.7 percent).

Both Ebanks and Caracter showed their potential in the summer league where they basically earned their places in the 2010-11 roster,

1st round: the Lakers 2010 first-round pick, which turned out to be the 28th, was sent to Memphis in the Pau Gasol trade on Feb 10, 2008. With this pick the Grizzlies selected Greivis Vasquez a point guard from Maryland.