LSL Mailbag: Lakers Free Agent, Trade Market Options
By Jacob Rude
Welcome to the first of hopefully many Lake Show Life mailbags. With the help of the amazing and faithful Lakers fans, we’ve put together a mailbag with questions that are on the minds of the fans. These are pretty self explanatory, so without further adieu let’s jump right in.
@TheLakeShowLife any chance the Lakers make a trade by the deadline? If so, who do you think we should trade and with whom?
— swizzy (@EJSwank) December 31, 2014
I’d be surprised if they didn’t move at least one person. With Jordan Hill and Ed Davis the most desirable targets and Jeremy Lin an outside target, the odds of a trade happening are high.
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With Hill, you have a bit of a hurdle to clear. His contract, which pays him $9 million this year, comes with a no-trade clause because of his second year being a team option. The two ways to get around that are for Hill to simply approve a trade, which is likely. Any trade made would be sending him to a contender and will give him a chance to play meaningful playoff minutes, something he’s hardly had a chance to do with the Lakers.
The other option is to guarantee Hill’s second year by picking up his option. At that point, his no-trade clause of sorts is nullified, but it also means a team will be on the hook for over $9 million for Hill over the next season and-a-third. Option number one seems more likely on the surface, but the most likely scenario for Hill is that he is not traded. Finding someone to match that salary and give the Lakers a pick is hard.
One scenario that has been tossed about has been the (baseless) proposal of sending Hill to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Kendrick Perkins and a first-round pick. It makes sense for the Thunder, who can get an upgrade over Perkins and make a run into the playoffs and Hill joins a team that will be contending for a title this year and may even pick up his option for next year, depending on how well he plays.
With Davis, you have a much more likely chance of him being traded simply because his contract is so low. While many fans, myself included, would like to see him stick around, if a deal is presented that the Lakers feel is a suitable return, they will likely pull the trigger. There are an endless amount of possibility Davis can go thanks to his low salary, so projecting one isn’t necessarily easy.
The Cavs were a favorite prior to trading from Timofey Mozgov, which likely took them out of contention. Davis’ small contract and big impact will cost a team a first-round pick at the minimum, with maybe a low-end prospect thrown in or an additional draft pick.
Lin has talent, but his quirky contract makes it hard to trade. While he is paid just $8 million, his cap hit is $15 million making him hard to move. Few teams are going to want to trade for his contract. If Kupchak can find a suitor, it likely won’t be for much in return.
Going off the last question and moving forward, I think the Lakers will try harder to trade Hill, but Davis will be the one dealt. The suitors for Davis will be wider and more willing to give up assets considering the low cost of his contract to finish the year.
In an ideal world, the Lakers deal both big men for a plethora of draft picks and free up room to play Tarik Black and Ryan Kelly significant minutes, something Byron Scott seems willing to do. The downside (read: tanking side) is that also means big minutes for Robert Sacre, who could pretty much seal his fate for the future considering he has a team option next year.
The worst case scenario is they don’t make any deals and are stuck with an overloaded front court with a plethora of players who need to play (Hill, Davis, Kelly, Black) and too many that don’t, but will (Sacre, Carlos Boozer).
Moving way far ahead, the Lakers obviously have their eyes set on the summer. With another dismal season about halfway through, the Lakers are hoping for a big coup in the free agent market, but will it be another case of last year all over again?
We know the Lakers are heavily interested in Rajon Rondo. I’d imagine he will top their free agent wish list this summer, but it’s hard to imagine him leaving Dallas. If the Mavericks continue their winning ways, envisioning him leaving them to rebuild again with the Lakers makes little sense.
After that, the Lakers will likely be in the Marc-et for a big man (bad puns are bad). Marc Gasol will be another top target, but much like Rondo, envisioning him leaving a competitive team to join a franchise that so badly misused and mishandled his brother is hard to imagine.
Obviously, Kevin Love will be chased, but the situation in Cleveland would have to go very badly for Love to abandon LeBron James just on the downside of his prime and Kyrie Irving entering his for Kobe Bryant‘s swan song and Nick Young‘s swaggish antics.
To have a successful summer, the Lakers are going to have to go after the B+ market instead of the A market guys. Players like Goran Dragic, Greg Monroe and Reggie Jackson should be at the top of their lists. If you could nab two of these three, preferably Dragic and Monroe, then the Lakers have a big jump start on their rebuilding strategy.
If you’d like to me in our next mailbag next week, leave questions below or tweet us @TheLakeShowLife!