Los Angeles Lakers: What to do at the trade deadline
By Ed Schrenzel
Make a lesser trade
A year ago, Magic had just assumed his position as president of basketball operations when he traded leading scorer Lou Williams to Houston for Corey Brewer and a second-round draft pick that was converted into two picks, Josh Hart and Thomas Bryant.
Hart already shows promise, but it will take time to see how much Bryant will contribute. After the trade, Williams was a major factor off the bench for the Rockets. He is now having a tremendous season for the Clippers and should be a coveted free agent in July.
Rumors have circulated for months that the Lakers will try to take a similar path this year, but the salary cap complicates matters. The Lakers want to maintain maximum flexibility to sign free agents, which means they don’t want to take back salary commitments beyond this season.
On the surface, since they have already traded away their first-round draft pick, acquiring another pick would seem attractive. In reality, do the Lakers really need any more young players?
The bottom line is that minor roster tinkering via trade certainly remains a possibility. But the fact that the team was playing so well lately makes this less likely now than it did a month or so ago.