The Los Angeles Lakers’ loss to the Golden State Warriors on the opening night proved that the Lakers need a lot more depth on their roster if they even hope to make the playoffs in the Western Conference this season. The team that rocks the purple and gold have been looking listless on the court for the last 2 seasons and may make a massive trade to change their roster up.
Adrian Wojnarowski believes that Rob Pelinka and the Lakers are going to be interested in moving Russell Westbrook and the Lakers’ 2 first-round picks in 2027 and 2029 for rotational players, as more teams will be sellers than in recent years because of the tank for Victor Wembanyama.
"I'm told to expect Rob Pelinka and the Lakers to wait until post-Thanksgiving, 20 games into the season and see what teams may start pivoting, who don't start off well."@wojespn on what kind of moves the Lakers can make with their rosterpic.twitter.com/F4MNBN7ArR
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) October 19, 2022
“I’m told to expect Rob Pelinka and the Lakers to wait until post-Thanksgiving, 20 games into the season, and see what teams may start pivoting, who don’t start off well, who decide that they may want to unload players and get involved in the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes. Getting down in the lottery, instead of as we saw in previous years, teams chasing the play-in tournament. I see them using that 2027 and 2029 pick, and Russell Westbrook’s contract. To see what’s going to be out there in the marketplace, but with more teams becoming sellers, there were so many buyers last year, the expectation is that there are more sellers this year and you’ll see the asking price in trades go down. It’s supply and demand. Expect the Lakers to reach that 20 game point where teams reach an inflection point about how they want to proceed.”
The Lakers could get up to 4 players on $10 million contracts by trading Russ if they wanted to, but it seems the Lakers have been waiting patiently to pounce on the first star to become available on the trade market.
Should The Lakers Trade For Depth Or A Star?
The Lakers’ spent the early part of this summer trying to use their remaining first-round picks to try to trade for Kyrie Irving, also sending an offer to the Utah Jazz for Donovan Mitchell. However, those moves didn’t work out and the Lakers don’t want to send the picks and Westbrook for just average rotational players on contracts that go beyond this season.
At this point, the Lakers’ depth has been a recurring issue over the seasons. There is no reason for them to try and use minimum contracts to try and fill their team out. LeBron plays best with complementary role players, something the Lakers lack but could get if they trade Westbrook with that pick for 3 players from teams like the Detroit Pistons, Indiana Pacers, and San Antonio Spurs.
