Soon after he was signed in early March, Wenyen Gabriel showed that he had the potential to become exactly the type of role player the Los Angeles Lakers badly needed.
They lacked a backup 4 with legitimate height and length who was young, energetic and defensive-minded, and they got such a player in Gabriel.
When he was on the court, the advanced stats clearly showed that L.A. played better.
But Gabriel still has lots of room for improvement, and he publicly revealed what general manager Rob Pelinka and senior basketball advisor Kurt Rambis asked him to work on this offseason.
“It was real positive, my meeting with Rob and Kurt,” Gabriel said. “And they’re excited to have me here this summer so I can put in some work, and they said a lot of good things about me and complimented my game, the different things that I bring to the court. (They just told me) to improve on different things, put on some more weight, spend some time in the weight room and continue to improve my shot.
“But there weren’t too many different things that they wanted to see. Just putting in the time — we have a long offseason — and committing myself to the work is going to lead to good results, so we’re really excited.”
Gabriel is 6-foot-9 but weighs only about 205 pounds. Adding about 10-15 pounds of upper body and core muscle will help him get better at finishing at or near the rim and defending big men in the post or under the basket.
He has shown some promise of becoming a good 3-point shooter, but it hasn’t happened yet, as he made just 26.1 percent of his treys in 19 games with the Purple and Gold.
Becoming an above-average outside shooter would raise his value immensely, especially given his defensive versatility, energy and athleticism.
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