McKie’s Roster Spot Uncertain

Aaron McKie could look around the Lakers locker room and see an 18-year-old, a 19-year old and then, if he held up a mirror, a 34-year-old.

The guard tries to keep things light-hearted as he heads into what would be his 13th season, but he acknowledges he is near the end of his career.

“The fat lady is warming up her pipes,” he said.

McKie averaged only 0.5 points in 14 games last season after being sidelined because of a quadriceps tendon injury. He will make $2.5 million this season, although the Lakers might waive him or try to trade him to make room for one of their younger players, forward Devin Green or rookie guard J.R. Pinnock. Waiving McKie would be a tough call, one that would come toward the end of training camp and hinge primarily on one question -- youth or experience?

Including McKie, the Lakers have 13 players with guaranteed contracts, two short of the league maximum. The contracts of Ronny Turiaf and Smush Parker become guaranteed if they are still on the roster Nov. 1, a virtual certainty that would put the Lakers at the 15-man capacity and leave the team in a roster crunch if they want to keep Green or Pinnock, who have non-guaranteed contracts.

The Lakers are more familiar with Green, a second-year forward who averaged 0.9 points and five minutes in 27 games last season, but Pinnock has had a decent training camp.

Selected 58th overall by the Dallas Mavericks in June’s draft, Pinnock was traded to the Lakers on draft day for a future second-round pick.

“He’s picking up the offense,” assistant coach Kurt Rambis said. “You feel a lot of confidence when he shoots that the ball’s going in.”

Pinnock, who averaged 14.5 points last season for George Washington, still has plenty of work to do if he is going to make the team.

“He’s going to have to defend some really tough people,” Rambis said. “And he’s going to have to show us consistent knowledge of the offense.”

McKie did not play in Tuesday’s exhibition opener against Utah. Green had two points in four minutes and Pinnock went scoreless in five minutes.

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The Lakers defeated Utah, 94-79, in front of an announced crowd of 9,713 at Save Mart Center in Fresno.

No Kobe Bryant and no Phil Jackson made the game less popular among the local crowd, which filled less than two-thirds of the arena.

Lamar Odom, Parker, Kwame Brown, Luke Walton and Maurice Evans started for the Lakers. Odom had 18 points, Parker and Sasha Vujacic each had 13, and Evans had 12.

“They were the guys that gave us a good lift,” Rambis said.

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Utah guard and former Laker Derek Fisher was greeted warmly by the pro-Lakers crowd.

Traded to the Jazz after two seasons with the Golden State Warriors, Fisher will probably get more playing time with Utah than he would have behind the Warriors’ Baron Davis.

“It’s a good place from him” Rambis said. “He’s a system player. [Coach] Jerry Sloan is going to love him.”

Fisher had five points and five assists Tuesday.

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mike.bresnahan@latimes.com