Lakers Rumors: LA May Not Make Major Win-Now Trade This Season
The Lakers were completely outplayed in their seventh game (and fifth loss) without Anthony Davis on Wednesday. The Heat beat them up for a 112-98 victory, dropping the Lakers to 14-21 on the season. They're now 1.5 games back of the Oklahoma City Thunder for the 12th seed in the Western Conference — yes, it's that bad.
There's been a lot of talk about the Lakers potentially making some win-now trades to fix the holes in their roster and load up for a playoff push. With LeBron James turning 38-years-old on Friday, there isn't really a lot of time to waste.
After Wednesday's loss, LeBron dropped some very interesting comments, making it clear he's sick of playing for a losing team, and doesn't know how much longer he can play like this.
It sounds like he wants the team to make a trade to put the right pieces around him to contend in the Western Conference. But, unfortunately for LeBron, Dan Woike of the LA Times reported that he's heard the Lakers are considering doing just the opposite.
"Internally, sources said, there’s been serious consideration given to riding out the season without making a major deal if they can’t find one that would make the team a realistic contender."
First of all, oof. That's about the last thing that needs to come out just hours after LeBron made those comments. But second of all, let's break down what that really means.
Woike said they're considering riding out the season without a major deal if they can't find one that would make them a contender. So what kind of trade would do that?
Well there's always this proposed blockbuster with the Raptors. It would make the Lakers as ready to win now as any move, but it would also completely mortgage their future. So probably not a likely option.
Then, there's always the proposition of trading Russell Westbrook's expiring contract. That could help a team offload some money to load up for the 2023 free agent class, and maybe they can entice a team to take Westbrook with second-round picks in the right deal. They do have a lot of options to try to make a deal happen.
However, the likeliest trade scenario involves Kendrick Nunn, Patrick Beverly and picks. But Jovan Buha of The Athletic reported that they don't want to trade first-round picks to further compound the current roster building mistakes. So unless they can convince a team to take one first-round pick, or maybe someone like Max Christie instead, it feels unlikely the Lakers have a big move in them.
The best thing that can happen to the Lakers over the next few weeks is the return of a healthy Anthony Davis. If he comes back sooner rather than later, this front office could feel confident in making a win-now move to contend for a championship. But the longer he remains sidelined, the less likely it becomes that this team makes a move. Without AD, there's no chance this team contends for a championship.
