Free agents Matt Barnes and Theo Ratliff have agreed to deals with the Los Angeles Lakers, according to Yahoo! Sports. Ratliff agreed to a one-year deal worth $1.35 million, the veteran’s minimum for a one-year deal. Barnes agreed to a two-year, $3.6 million deal and is expected to sign tonight. The second year is a player option.

Matt was supposed to go to Toronto in a sign and trade for close to $10 million but a calculation error and a lack of available funds for the Raptors caused the talks to fall through. The Cleveland Cavaliers were offering Barnes $7 million but would not go higher than that. Thus, Barnes took a large paycut to play with the Lakers, the team that gave him the best shot at winning a championship.

This marks the second off-season in-a-row that a player that had an on-court incident with Kobe Bryant joined the Lakers the following year. Ron Artest came to LA after having an incident with Kobe in the playoffs and now Barnes is headed to SoCal after having a few brush ups with Kobe in a game in Orlando. And if it wasn’t for a late offer from the Utah Jazz, Raja Bell, who clotheslined Kobe a few years ago in the playoffs, would have joined the Lakers as well. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

At six-foot-seven, Barnes adds a fourth, if you count the drafting of Devin Ebanks as the third, versatile defender that the Lakers can throw out on the better offensive players in the league. When you consider what Miami did with their backcourt, being able to throw Kobe, Ron Artest, Ebanks (who is six-foot-eight), and Barnes at LeBron and Wade for 48 minutes is huge especially considering that they don’t have a back-up. Additionally, having Barnes on the bench with his size and defensive stature, Kobe will not have as heavy of a load during the regular season. Last year, his back-up was considered to be Shannon Brown and he was more a point guard than a two guard, so he was forced to play big minutes every night.

Barnes averaged nine points, six rebounds and two assists with the Magic last season while shooting 49% from the field. Obviously his main contribution will be on the defensive end, but Barnes showed some flashes from three-point range with the Magic (even though he finished with an underwhelming 32%) and playing in the triangle will create multiple open looks for him just Stan Van Gundy’s system did for him in Orlando. Matt is also a pretty good athlete which will help the Lakers with their transition game.

The addition of Theo Ratliff is not as impactful or as popular as Barnes’ but his signing was something the Lakers needed to do. With Josh Powell heading to Atlanta and DJ Mbenga not getting a contract offer from the Lakers, they needed to add two big men to the roster to ensure a complete 12-man bench, even if all the players are not used. After a strong showing from Derrick Caracter at the NBA Summer League, odds are he is the man that the Lakers use to replace Josh Powell, but Mbenga’s third string center spot was still open.

Ratliff is 37-years old and figures to get just as much run as Mbenga did, which is not much, but having more veteran leadership and a good personality around the clubhouse is never a negative. He’s a good guy and he will fight with everything he’s got whenever he gets onto the floor. Kobe will enjoy having with the team and so will everybody else.

One question that the signing of Barnes does bring up is whether or not the Lakers will be re-signing Shannon Brown. I think the common belief is that Barnes joining with LA kills any possible deal with Brown but I think the fifth guard spot is still wide open. I mentioned Barnes playing some minutes at the two but there is still one more guard spot open. I highly doubt Sasha Vujacic will receive a bigger role this season mostly because he isn’t a good basketball player and that is generally something required to play basketball which means another guard is a must. Not to mention Sasha has an expiring contract and will likely be dealt at some point during the season.