Los Angeles Lakers: Ranking the 5 best buyout candidates

1. Gorgui Dieng

UPDATE: Gorgui Dieng has agreed to sign with the San Antonio Spurs, so scratch him off the list.

To be perfectly honest, lots of teams should be lining up for Gorgui Dieng’s services now that he’s been bought out by the Memphis Grizzlies. The Los Angeles Lakers should be one of them, especially since Dieng’s rim protection and 3-point shooting would be huge assets to this team in its current state.

Dieng has actually become underrated because of how inflated his four-year, $64 million contract was, but the Lakers (or any potential suitor) wouldn’t have to worry about that and could sign him for cheap. In terms of backup or third-string bigs, it doesn’t get much better than Dieng.

This season, the 31-year-old center has averaged 7.9 points, 4.5 rebounds and 0.6 blocks in his 16.9 minutes per game. He’s also made 51.9 percent of his looks, including 47.9 percent of his 3-pointers on 2.2 attempts per game. Considering the Lakers may not be enjoying the Marc Gasol experience, it’d be a great idea to sign a big who can play significant minutes now before fading into the background behind Gasol, Harrell and AD come playoff time.