Lakers make roster cuts by waiving Ronnie Aguilar, Reeves Nelson

With three preseason games remaining, the Lakers made two roster moves Saturday, waiving center Ronnie Aguilar and forward Reeves Nelson.

The transactions were hardly unexpected.

Aguilar appeared in four preseason games with the Lakers, averaging 0.8 points and 0.5 rebounds in 7.8 minutes. Nelson, who previously played at UCLA, averaged 1.3 points and 4.0 rebounds in 11 minutes in three preseason games.

This brings the Lakers’ roster to 18 players. Three or four more moves, in terms of cuts, could be made in the next week. In the regular season, NBA teams can carry a maximum of 15 players.

Aguilar and Nelson were in the news earlier this week. Aguilar, the son of Central American immigrants, was the subject of a front-page story in The Times by reporter David Wharton.

“I’m not thinking about getting cut,” he told Wharton. “My goal is to make the team.”

On Wednesday, Nelson’s defamation lawsuit against Sports Illustrated and reporter George Dohrmann was thrown out by a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge. The article, in part, chronicled Nelson’s time at UCLA.

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