LA Lakers News: Carlos Boozer Acquired Off Amnesty Waivers; Former Duke Standout Will Mentor First Round Pick Julius Randle

The LA Lakers are taking the arduous task of filling out their roster spots with limited resources. Another expected move was finally executed: Carlos Boozer was acquired after his amnesty proceedings.

It ended up as a virtual trade between Pau Gasol and Carlos Boozer, of course the Lakers get the lower end of the deal.

The official details of the amnesty rules from ESPN:

"The Los Angeles Lakers have acquired Carlos Boozer on amnesty waivers, sources said.

Nine teams with cap space were able to make a blind bid to pick up the remaining portion of Boozer's $16.8 million deal with the Chicago Bulls. The Lakers won with a bid of $3.25 million, sources told ESPN.com's Marc Stein.

That means the Bulls must pay Boozer the remaining $13.6 million that he is owed in 2014-15 on the final year of his current contract. Releasing Boozer via the amnesty clause removes that $13.6 million from Chicago's books for salary-cap and luxury-tax purposes, but the Bulls still must pay him the money he's owed.

Boozer was released by the Bulls earlier this week as they made room to sign free agents Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic."

The Lakers are now stacked with power forwards. Their recent acquisition Ed Davis, first round pick Julius Randle and now Boozer. The former Duke standout would probably be tasked with mentoring Randle on maximizing production on the pick and roll.

Boozer was once a coveted player and he got the fat contract from the Chicago Bulls in 2010 as  the teams' consolation prize when the Big Three assembled in Miami. He was at the right place at the right time, similar to Amare Stoudemire who was the Knicks consolation prize.

The two players regressed rapidly and although Boozer was still putting up the numbers, he was criticized for not being the ideal player in Tom Thibodeau's  set-up. Boozer's contract is expiring but the Chicago Bulls desperately want to take the next step by taking Pau Gasol and bringing in Nikola Mirotic. They need the $ 16.8 million cap space to fulfill that.