Why Lakers Standing Pat At Trade Deadline Was Right Move

For about the final 10 minutes preceding the 3 PM Eastern trade deadline on Thursday, madness ensued. Nearly every name on the trading block was moved.

Goran Dragic. Isaiah Thomas. Brandon Knight. Reggie Jackson. Enes Kanter. Michael Carter-Williams. Miles Plumlee. K.J. McDaniels. All traded. And none of those deals included the Lakers.

The instant reaction among many Lakers fans was anger. Why would Mitch Kupchak and Jim Buss sit back and let all these names bounce around and do nothing? With Dragic and Jackson, both potential free agent targets, on the trading block, why would our front office not heavily pursue them?

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Simple. It’s not part of the plan.

On the day, the Lakers never made anything more than formal inquiries on Dragic and Ty Lawson, both who were being shopped around. In everything else, they stood back and let the chaos unfold. No one asked them about Jordan Hill, Ed Davis, or Jeremy Lin, nor were they expected to. LA chose not to actively pursue a deal for them, instead choosing to hang on and go forward with the team they have.

And it was the right decision.

Coming into today, any expert or NBA insider said the Lakers may have had assets, but they weren’t valuable ones. We know the Lakers have a history of over-valuing their players (see: Gasol, Pau) and letting them walk away for nothing. This year, the only realistically valuable assets they had were Hill and Lin. The latter was likely drawing incredibly minimal interest given his huge contract. The former, however, was likely garnering some interest.

However, given the state of Hill’s contract, it’s unlikely the deals coming in had any value. It’s been well-documented that Hill’s contract comes with veto power so long as the second year of his team option. While the consensus would be that he might welcome a trade to a contender, Hill publicly stated he was happy in LA and wanted to stay. It wouldn’t be as simple as finding a deal for him and having him accept it simply because he was a contender.

Therefore, any deal the Lakers would make would require Hill’s second-year to be guaranteed, which severely depreciates his value. Teams like expiring deals, not deals for players who are going to be overpaid for a year and a half.

So for the Lakers, it was a case of not making any deal over making a bad deal being the best choice for them. Making a bad deal involving an asset like Hill, Davis, or even the first-round pick they own from Houston would be a bad decision. Davis was never going to net the Lakers much in a trade considering he’ll opt out this summer. Hill, now, can be apart of a draft-day trade of sorts where he’ll be an expiring contract and can net the Lakers either another draft pick or a better player.

In the end, the Lakers have a plan. From day one this season, Buss and Kupchak have been focused on the draft and retaining their draft pick. For the Lakers to abandon that plan now would be more disastrous than anything we’ve seen this year. We still have a really bad team who has lost 14 of their last 15 games.

Have patience, fans. This isn’t an overnight fix. Rebuilds don’t work that way. Have faith in Kupchak, who clearly has a plan.

Next: Lakers Need Top Draft Choices To Become Contenders Again

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