Los Angeles Lakers Rumors: Metta World Peace Close to Signing a One-Year Contract

The Los Angeles Lakers and Metta World Peace are reportedly very close to signing a one-year deal, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reported.

World Peace, formerly known as Ron Artest, who played for the Lakers from 2009 to 2012, started participating in workouts with some of the Lakers' players at the team's practice facility in El Segundo, CA, this week. The 35-year-old veteran will reportedly continue working out with the team through the start of training camp.

Earlier in the summer, World Peace worked with a recovering Julius Randle, the 2014 first-round draft pick out of Kentucky. Randle broke his right tibia in October 2014 against the Houston Rockets.

League sources reported that the Lakers believe that World Peace can have a good influence on the team's younger players.

Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders believes that World Peace's return is all "about Julius Randle."

His tweets read:

"A teammate can mentor differently than a coach."

"Metta and Randle have been spending a lot of time in the gym together - Lakers like the relationship/impact thus from MWP."

The Lakers have made several moves to improve the team after going 21-61. They added D'Angelo Russell, the 2015 Sixth Man of the Year, Lou Williams, Brandon Bass, Roy Hilbert, Anthony Brown and Larry Nance Jr.

The last time World Peace played in the NBA was during the 2013-14 season with the New York Knicks. He spent last year playing in China and Italy. In his career, World Peace has played for the Chicago Bulls, Indiana Pacers, Sacramento Kings and Houston Rockets.

Throughout his 15 seasons in the league, World Peace averaged 13.8 points and 4.7 rebounds.