Lakers News: Bill Simmons Thinks LA Has A Trade To Make

He may be on to something.

Your 2023-24 Los Angeles Lakers look almost completely different than they did at the start of the 2022-23 season. Among last year's opening night roster, only four players (LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Austin Reaves and Max Christie) remain.

Since completely taking over LA's front office in the spring of 2019 (he had previously worked under Magic Johnson for two seasons), team president Rob Pelinka has shown a compelling willingness to make a variety of roster moves, and has a lot more hits than misses under his belt (2021-22 team building aside, though it sure seems like that was dictated by outside influences) thus far. 

As one brilliant basketball mind sees it, though the team has added and re-signed some solid players this offseason, that doesn't mean it's optimizing its roster around James, Davis and Reaves.

During a new episode of his must-listen show The Bill Simmons Podcast, The Ringer's Bill Simmons told guests and colleagues Ryen Russillo and Joe House that he believes LA has too many tradable pieces to not tinker with their personnel as needed this season.

"This kills me," avowed Boston Celtics super-fan (and thus, Lakers hater) Simmons said. "I really like the team. I like what they did. I like the assets. The team makes sense to me... I think they have a lot of trade assets... They have the [D'Angelo] Russell contract, Max Christie and [rookie first round draft pick Jalen] Hood-Schifino, they have two firsts. Super frisky in December/January."

As Simmons has said before (though he didn't mention it in this segment of the podcast), the slightly-generous contract of Rui Hachimura is also pretty movable. The team could bundle together the contracts of Hachimura and Russell (worth a combined $33 million), a player on a rookie scale deal like Christie or Hood-Schifino, and some draft equity to trade for some high-quality veterans. Moody Dallas Mavericks All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving, earning $37 million, is the player Simmons has often floated. 

Ex-All-Star Philadelphia 76ers point guard James Harden, Irving's teammate on the Brooklyn Nets for an impressively short window of time, could also be an intriguing fit, but like D-Lo before him Harden would most likely underwhelm during critical playoff moments for LA.

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