Jordan Hill, Howard's understudy at center, came down with a herniated disk in his lower back during LA's loss to the Golden State Warriors, in the teams' exhibition opener in Fresno, California on Sunday.
Hill chipped in 10 points, three rebounds, three assists and a steal in 20 minutes off the bench before spending the remainder of the game in consultation with Lakers trainer Gary Vitti, per Kevin Ding of The Orange County Register.
The nature of the injury was diagnosed on Monday by Dr. Robert Watkins, the same doctor who performed the surgery on Howard's back in late April.
Hill's absence is a troubling development for a Lakers squad that lacks quality depth along the front line.
The fourth-year forward out of Arizona came to LA this past March in a trade for Derek Fisher with the Houston Rockets. His defense, rebounding and overall energy off the bench were of tremendous value to the Lakers down the stretch of the 2011-12 season, and he looked to be a key ingredient in Mike Brown's rotation heading into a pressure-packed campaign.
As Brown told The Los Angeles Times during the first week of practice:
"Jordan Hill, he’s showing that, hey, I need to be on the floor. He’s the one guy that I could say besides my starters that right now is showing he really needs to be on the floor with his activity out there."
But as valuable as Hill is for his skills and intangibles, players of his ilk aren't exactly in short supply.
The Lakers have a plethora of options at their disposal—be they players already in the rotation, young guys slated for the end of the bench, non-roster invitees fighting for roster spots in camp or veterans looking for work—with which to replace Jordan's production in the interim.
The most obvious option, it seems, woul...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
