Lakers News: How Rival Teams Perceive The Lakers Right Now

Your Los Angeles Lakers need to make a trade. They know it, and so does everybody else. The team boasts two incredibly appetizing future first-round draft picks available to flip this year in its 2027 and 2029 firsts. Given how bad the team looks now with All-NBA forwards LeBron James and Anthony Davis in relatively fine form (though no longer in their primes, it would appear), one could reasonably expect the team to be pretty darn bad five and seven years from now.

With L.A. off to an 0-3 start as a result of three straight brutal long range shooting nights and the damaging late-game play of current starting point guard Russell Westbrook, rival clubs are circling the team, hoping to pry loose that future draft capital.

Charania appeared on Bally Sports' "The Rally" to discuss his report that the Lakers were very interested in the possibility of adding Terry Rozier from the Hornets or Josh Richardson from the Spurs, in addition to probably supplemental contracts, in a trade.

“One guy that I’m hearing has emerged as a serious target for them is Terry Rozier… I’m told the Lakers have also had recent conversations with the Spurs.”

NBA Insider @ShamsCharania reports on the latest surrounding the Lakers. pic.twitter.com/ISWGuiCn2R
— The Rally (@TheRally) October 24, 2022

Here's the key insight from Shams:

"Teams are viewing the Lakers [as being] in a state of desperation, and they want either both of their unprotected first-round picks [or] definitely at least one, and I think that's going to create an issue. Darvin Ham was brought in to handle all of this. He was brought in to handle whether Russell Westbrook was going to start or come off the bench. Right now they're 0-3 this year, and I think a lot of what we saw last year is being repeated."

As many have said, the head coach is ultimately not the problem, it is the central rot surrounding the team's unimpressive roster around stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis, and that ultimately is the responsibility of recently-extended team vice president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka.

The issue, though, is that Pelinka himself may not be desperate enough. A well-sourced rumor suggests that Pelinka could wait for at least a month to pull the trigger on a trade. Should Los Angeles wait too long, the team seems liable to fall to a brutal record before the front office leader even makes a deal, thanks to its intimidating schedule over the coming month's slate of games.