The Los Angeles Lakers are one of the hottest topics in the NBA right as trade rumors continue circling the Purple and Gold in the middle of a struggling season for them. This has opened to door for speculation (or maybe never closed it), and the team is constantly mentioned in trade rumors.
With Anthony Davis down with a foot injury, more rumors about the Lakers have surfaced, and while some say they will play out this season with their current roster, others still believe that they should make a move before it’s too late.
This is an interesting discussion around the league, but many fans are siding with the Lakers making a move now instead of waiting to see what they can do in free agency, where they’ll have some cap space.
Los Angeles Lakers Should Start Trading Players And Get Ready For The Near Future
Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype explains why the 17-time NBA champions would be better off trading pieces now instead of waiting for free agency. This is something that hasn’t been talked about that much but could help the Lakers a lot.
The Lakers might be better off trading for several role players before the trade deadline for several reasons. For starters, they would have more flexibility in terms of the salaries they are allowed to take on in a trade. For example, they can take back up to $58.9 million in salaries for Westbrook this season alone, nearly double the spending power they have in the upcoming offseason. This process would allow them to get much deeper than with cap space.
They could take advantage of some disgruntled stars and improve their roster while securing these players for the mid-term. Some stars like Zach LaVine and Bradley Beal could be available for trade. And once the summer arrives, they could land players like Kyrie Irving and Draymond Green in sign-and-trade deals.
One other issue if they head into the offseason as a cap space team is that they could miss out on possible trade opportunities. For example, if a player like Zach LaVine or Bradley Beal were to become available, the Lakers would not have a chance to acquire them with their cap space. That’s because their $30 million in cap space won’t be enough to absorb such an expensive player.
Gozlan also suggests that creating a trade exception could be a good move for the Lakers, but they’d need to send a big package to any team and still see some high-profile players join different teams.
One alternative to this is trading Westbrook now in an uneven trade with the where they create a large trade exception. But that can cost them assets and any players they acquire within the trade exception can’t be aggregated in a trade for two months, meaning they could still miss out on July trade opportunities.
These are really good opportunities for the Lakers, but it remains to be seen if the front office thinks the same as Gozlan. In recent days, we learned that Jeanie Buss doesn’t want to trade the team’s 2027 and 2029 first-round draft picks. Kendrick Perkins claims that’s the way Buss and Rob Pelinka are punishing LeBron James for the Russell Westbrook trade, which has become a common idea around the league.
The Lakers have big questions to answer before it’s too late, but it seems like they have good options to make some trades. However, time will tell how this situation plays out.
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