Lakers Rumors: Top Trade Targets for LA Right Now
The Lakers find themselves in a difficult position. They were trending in the right direction with Anthony Davis playing the best basketball of his career, but then he went down with yet another major injury. We don't yet know the timetable of when AD may return, but as of now, it's not looking great.
The Lakers currently sit at 13-18 as the 13th seed in the West, 2.5 games back of the 10th and final play-in spot. Obviously it's still early in the season, but if AD is out an extended period of time, it could only get worse.
The Lakers don't want to waste LeBron James' age-38 season, so if they want to remain afloat in the Western Conference, they may have to make some moves. Fortunately, they have their eyes on a lot of potential options, as reported by The Athletic's Jovan Buha.
"The Lakers have had discussions for Detroit’s Bojan Bogdanovic, as well as the Knicks’ Evan Fournier and Cam Reddish. In addition, other names that have come up are DeMar DeRozan, Kyle Kuzma, Myles Turner, Buddy Hield, Kyrie Irving and Doug McDermott."
But wait, there's more.
"Some others to watch that are expected to be available are Jae Crowder, Eric Gordon, Alec Burks, Terry Rozier, P.J. Washington, Kelly Oubre Jr., Josh Richardson and Jakob Poeltl."
That's a lot to take in, so let's break it down a little bit more.
There's a lot of shooters on that list. Bojan Bogdanovic, Evan Fournier, Kyle Kuzma, Buddy Hield, Kyrie Irving, Doug McDermott, Eric Gordon, Alec Burks, Terry Rozier and Josh Richardson would all add some three-point shooting to this team, some better than others.
The Lakers currently rank 27th in the entire league with a 33.1 three-point percentage, so adding most of those guys could be a huge upgrade. Here's how all these guys are shooting from three this season:
Bogdanovic: 42.1% from three
Fournier: 33.3% from three
Kuzma: 34.5% from three
Hield: 39.7% from three
Irving: 33.7% from three
McDermott: 43.2% from three
Gordon: 35.4% from three
Burks: 39.8% from three
Rozier: 31.4% from three
Richardson: 36.8% from three
After the shooters, there are a few big men — Myler Turner, P.J. Washington and Jakob Poeltl. They could all vastly improve the defense in AD's absence, and Turner (41.7% from three) and Washington (31.8% from three) could stretch the floor a little bit. Finally, there's Cam Reddish, who could be a buy-low candidate; Kelly Oubre Jr., who could provide some help on both end of the floor; and Jae Crowder, who's looking for a new team to play for this season.
The trade for Hield and Turner will always be intriguing, as they would add the exact two pieces LA is missing — shooting and a defensive big. However, if the team doesn't want to trade Russell Westbrook anymore, they may be looking at Kendrick Nunn, Patrick Beverly and picks as their end of the deal. That probably takes them out of the running for the Pacers deal, but still could get them one of those above average shooters.
The Lakers have their options, but the injury to AD definitely slowed things down a little bit. However, with trade season almost upon us, we should expect the Lakers to be pretty active.
