The Los Angeles Lakers of today are a different team than the Lakers that their fans are used to. They are not making the playoffs perennially, Kobe Bryant is not taking the court in his purple and gold number 24 jersey, and the Lakers are in the bottom of the league in terms of salary total.

Some think that the reason for the low payroll is for lack of players who are worth large amounts. So true, perhaps, that the Lakers are looking for help from a series of players that they are holding a “Free Agent Minicamp” for 13 players. Only six of those players have NBA experience from earlier in their careers.

General Manager Mike Kupchek spoke to Joey Ramirez of Lakers.com about the participants, which was held on August 17:

“I don’t think we’re looking at players here that would be in the rotation, although you never know,” Kupchak said. “They come to camp and earn whatever they can get. But what I think we’re looking at here are known players. They’re free agents and we do have roster spots open in terms of our team. But also we have roster spots open in terms of training camp.”

The minicamp invitees included:

– Jeff Ayres (Los Angeles Clippers/Arizona State)
– P.J. Hairston (Memphis Grizzlies/ North Carolina)
– Tyler Haws (Obradoiro CAB/BYU)
– Xavier Henry (Santa Cruz Warriors/Kansas)
– Pierre Jackson (Idaho Stampede/Baylor)
– Julian Jacobs (USC)
– Orlando Johnson (Guangxi Weizhuang/UC Santa Barbara)
– Nikola Jovanovic (USC)
– Mamadou Ndiaye (UC Irvine)
– Johnny O’Bryant III (Milwaukee Bucks/LSU)
– Wesley Saunders (Austin Spurs/Harvard)
– Travis Wear (RETAbet.es GBC/UCLA)
– Dion Wright (St. Bonaventure)

The camp comes about at a time where certain players are in doubt about their roles on the team.

Nick Young, who seemingly has issues with young guard D’Angelo Russell, will likely be moved before the beginning of the season, and a trade with him will probably include a player they acquired from the Bulls earlier this offseason. The problem with the trade is that unloading players will mean receiving players in return, which may eventually eliminate the purpose of the camp.

However, all of that is mere speculation as of now, and the camp will take place as scheduled so that the Lakers can round out their team.