NBA Free Agency: 5 centers the Los Angeles Lakers should target this offseason

The Los Angeles Lakers have already made 5 great free agent signings this summer. They started the offseason with a bang by signing the best player on the planet, and although there are concerns over whether the rest of their roster is made for the modern, 3-point shooting NBA, there's no denying that all 5 of their signings have the ability to make a big impact on their roster over the next season.

However, one of their shortcomings so far has been their inability to find another center to back up JaVale McGee, or possibly dislodge him from the starting lineup next season. Even in the pace-and-space version of basketball that the majority of the league is playing in the recent past, teams have a dire need for traditional centers on days when their perimeter shooting is off.

Letting Julius Randle walk was possibly a mistake in both the short and the long term, but the Lakers can make amends for the shorter term by signing one of the following bargain players still out there in the free agency market. Here's a countdown of the top 5 centers who would mesh well with the Lakers roster next year:

#5 Brandan Wright

Brandan Wright has made a career out of being a high-energy, rim-running big, although bigger things were expected out of the #8 pick from the 2007 draft class following a promising college career with the Tar Heels.

Wright played 27 games with the Grizzlies in the 2017-18 season, before getting cut and going into NBA irrelevance after another outing with the Rockets. He has never been a starting-caliber center, but James could use some of his athleticism, which he still possesses bundles of. With 3 elite playmakers currently on the Lakers' roster, they could run pick-and-rolls to set him up as a vertical spacer.

Wright projects as a low-risk bargain signing and should be available for the veteran's minimum as a backup for the likes of JaVale McGee and Mo Wagner.

#4 Montrezl Harrell

Playing 17 minutes per game for the Clippers as DeAndre Jordan's backup, Harrell was a real spark off the bench for Doc Rivers' team last season. He averaged 11 points and 4 rebounds per game - 1.3 of those were offensive rebounds, which bode well for a youngster like him who still has untapped potential to his game.

A second-round pick from the draft class of 2015, Harrell has the potential to be a starting center with teams looking for rim-runners. If he is able to keep up his high-energy playing style, and continues to guard adequately on switches to the perimeter as he did last season, the Lakers will have gotten themselves a bargain signing to fill up a position of need.

Don't sleep on the 24-year-old's potential just yet.

#3 Alex Len

To try and construe Alex Len's career as anything but a disappointment thus far would be to lie through one's teeth. The Ukrainian center was selected by the Phoenix Suns with the #5 pick overall in the 2013 draft and has done nothing noteworthy in a 5-year NBA career spent coming off the bench.

The Lakers, however, are desperately short of players in their frontcourt. Given that Len has been a plus defender in the last 4 seasons, he projects as at least an average rim protector. An old-school center who doesn't have a shooting range anywhere further than the paint area, Len has the nous, however, to not demand touches from elsewhere on the court.

He could still serve as an adequate roll man alongside the Lakers' stable of playmaking talent and turn the narrative of his career around.

#2 David West

David West has had a pretty successful NBA career thus far. Giving up on millions of dollars to sign with the Spurs in 2015 and chase a ring that had eluded him till then, the #18 pick from the 2003 NBA draft has achieved those goals with back-to-back championships in the Bay Area, playing as a reliable frontcourt backup to the likes of Draymond Green.

West is one of the best playmakers out of the post even at his ripe, old age of 38, and has achieved everything he could want from his NBA career thus far. He still projects as a starting quality center if his body can keep up with the grind of playing heavy minutes, but even as a reserve, he fits the archetype of free agents the Lakers have signed thus far - guys capable of making plays on their own.

#1 Greg Monroe

Greg Monroe's 2017-18 season was a tumultuous one by any standards. The 28-year-old is an old dog still learning new tricks in a league that has moved long past the old-school post play that he specializes in. While still a porous defender, Monroe can be used effectively as a center at crucial junctures of games as Brad Stevens has demonstrated over the course of the past season.

Monroe is an efficient player on offense, and still has the athleticism and foot speed to play in an up-tempo brand of basketball that a Lakers team with so much youth played last year. Crucially, though, he brings the one skill the Lakers' frontcourt lacks - rebounding and the ability to play consistently from start to finish.

Monroe did no harm to his value as a free agent last season and will be worth a shot as a signing at the mid-level exception.