Lakers stand pat during trading season

LOS ANGELES – The trade deadline came and went Thursday. The Los Angeles Lakers stuck with what they had all along.

Were they close to a deal?

“Nothing of significance,” Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said Thursday. “You can always look at the bottom of your roster. There were a couple (of minor) things that came across my desk that we considered seriously.”

There have been solid victories this season (in Boston and in Portland) and also embarrassing losses (including at Cleveland), but Kupchak believes in his veteran unit that has been to the NBA finals the last three seasons.

The Lakers will look into adding a veteran player who gets waived over the next few days. It’s a speculative list, but power forward Troy Murphy and small forward Jason Kapono might be bought out by their teams by Tuesday, the deadline for players to be waived and still be eligible for playoffs with another team.

“We’re going to pay attention,” Kupchak said. “Typically the guys that get waived are veterans on bad teams in the last year of a deal and they go to their general manager and beg to be released.”

Even if the Lakers don’t sign a waived player, they have one coming back next week when reserve forward Matt Barnes returns from knee surgery.