Lakers Rumors: NBA Insider Proposes Blockbuster Win-Now Trade for LA
The Lakers find themselves in a very difficult position this trade season. Most teams who are 13-20 and the 13th seed in the West wouldn't be looking for win-now moves. But most teams don't have an almost 38-year-old superstar named LeBron James.
The Lakers cannot afford to waste another season of LeBron, so they can't really stand pat this trade season. However, with LeBron's co-star Anthony Davis out indefinitely — after he was playing like the No. 1 option on this team — there's really no right answer of what to do.
Jovan Buha of The Athletic reported that the team may not want to part with their future first-round picks, as they don't want to further dig a hole for their team based on their previous roster-building mistakes. However, this is the Lakers, and they may need to go all-in with LeBron nearing the end of his career. So, the guys at Bleacher Report came up with a blockbuster win-now move for the Lakers. Here was the proposal:
Los Angeles Lakers Receive: Chris Boucher, Gary Trent Jr., Fred VanVleet
Toronto Raptors Receive: Max Christie, Juan Toscano-Anderson, Russell Westbrook, 2026 first-round pick swap, 2027 first-round pick (unprotected), 2028 first-round pick swap, 2029 first-round pick (unprotected)
Let's start with the bad news — what the Lakers are giving up. Max Christie is the only real player with potential they're giving up. The 19-year-old has been really solid in limited time this year, and has shown a lot of promise at such a young age. After him, it's Juan Toscano-Anderson — who's fallen out of the rotation — and Russell Westbrook, who is playing much better, but won't be difficult to part with in a win-now move.
However, after those guys, there are the picks — and there are a lot of them. Unprotected first-round picks are never easy to give up, and the Lakers would be moving two of them, in 2027 and 2029. Then, they're adding first-round pick swaps in 2026 and 2028 — and if you don't think pick swaps are valuable, the Pelicans currently own the right to swap with the Lakers this season. So, yeah, they're valuable.
As for the return, the Lakers would be getting three really good rotational pieces in Chris Boucher, Gary Trent Jr. and Fred VanVleet.
VanVleet is the best of the bunch. An All-Star last season, he's averaging 19.0 points, 6.0 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game this year. He's a great point guard, an above-average shooter and would be a really nice fit next to LeBron and AD.
Speaking of nice fits, Trent Jr. would be a very solid addition to the Lakers' lineup as a 3-and-D guard. Trent Jr. is averaging 16.6 points per game on 43.1% shooting from the field and 33.9% from three. Last year, however, he shot an impressive 38.3% from three-point land.
Finally, there's Boucher, who would add a ton of defense and length in the middle of the Lakers' lineup. He's averaging a little over 10 points and six rebounds a game, and just under one block. But he's shown some really nice stretches of high-levels of defense in his career, and would be a solid one-two punch with AD — and an even better replacement if AD continues to miss time.
This move would very much be win-now for the Lakers, and would mortgage the future for the present. But a lineup with LeBron James, Anthony Davis and those three Raptors would be very strong, and could turn this team into a contender in a crowded Western Conference. If the Lakers wanted to go all-in, this could be their best bet.
