Lakers: Why It Might Be Time For L.A. To Go All-In On A Title
Los Angeles Lakers superstar center Anthony Davis has been on fire of late. Following the injury-mandated absence of Lakers forward LeBron James, it fell to AD to strive to keep the struggling club afloat. And he delivered at a level that this writer, at least, was absolutely not expecting.
In the six games he's played since becoming more of a focal point for the Lakers, Davis is averaging 32 points on 63.8% shooting (!), 16.8 rebounds, three assists, 2.8 blocks and 1.7 steals a night.
Doug McKain of our sister YouTube channel, Lakers 248, suggests that it would behoove the Lakers at this point to build around Davis instead of standing pat. McKain specifically recommends the club pull the trigger on a long-rumored deal that would send Russell Westbrook and L.A.'s two tradable future first-round draft picks, in 2027 and 2029, to the Indiana Pacers in exchange for 3-and-D center Myles Turner and three-point specialist Buddy Hield.
Through 15 games for the Pacers (all starts), the 6'11" Turner is averaging 18.0 points (on .544/.397.829 shooting splits), 8.5 rebounds, 2.6 blocks and 1.6 assists a night for a scrappy 12-8 Indiana team that currently sits at the four-seed spot in the Eastern Conference.
The 6'4" Hield is averaging 17.2 points on .420/.368/.889 shooting splits, 4.7 rebounds, 2.7 dimes and 1.1 steals a night, across 20 contests (all starts).
Both Turner and Hield are smack dab in the middle of their NBA primes at age 29. To be clear, neither is one of the top two reasons the Pacers have been this good in 2022-23. Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton has emerged as a borderline All-Star with his incredible scoring and passing instincts (as he demonstrated so definitely during the waning seconds of Monday's Pacers victory over Los Angeles).
Should Indiana continue to be this good, it's hard to see exactly why the team would want to get worse through a trade for Westbrook's expiring $47.1 million contract and those two picks. Even without Turner and Hield (the Pacers would presumably cut Russ in this scenario) the club would not be bad enough to be one of the five worst teams in the league, which all have had a pretty good head start in this year's tanking effort. It may make plenty of sense for L.A. to want to make a deal, but it's starting to make less and less sense from a Pacers perspective.
Regardless, there could be plenty of other willing trade partners out there for L.A., and it does make sense for the team to look for ways to improve, with Davis playing at this level.
