Huge Mid-Season Trade?
As I said above, once the LeBron James signing was announced it was widely believed that there was another big move just waiting to happen. The heavily rumored Paul George signing didn’t happen, as he decided almost 24 hours prior to LeBron’s decision to stay with the Oklahoma City Thunder. A trade with the Spurs for Kawhi Leonard was still available, but it never happened whether it was from the Spurs needs being too much or the Lakers’ brass not wanting to give up too much of the young core. Kawhi ended up being traded to the Toronto Raptors and the Lakers made no other big deals as a result.
That doesn’t mean a big trade can’t happen before the end of the season. We just saw last year how the Cavs overhauled their roster midseason in the hopes of making the team championship contenders. If the Lakers and LeBron feel like they’re a big trade or even a couple small trades from being real contenders in the West, then they might pull the trigger. LeBron can preach patience all he wants and Maginka can tout the two-year plan, but the fact of the matter is that LeBron is on the wrong side of 30 and the Lakers are only guaranteed three total seasons with him.
So where can the Lakers go for a midseason addition? Well, tell me if you’ve heard this name before: Kawhi Leonard.
Yes, the Lakers could finally make that heavily rumored trade for the former Finals MVP and bring him to his hometown. Toronto definitely wants a shot at re-signing him in the offseason, but if they feel after December that there’s not much of a shot, they may decide to trade him and receive assets for him. They did trade away DeRozan for him, and it’d be quite the turn to end up not having Kawhi or DeMar for the 2019-20 season to compliment an aging Kyle Lowry.
The other big name player the Lakers could pursue is Anthony Davis. Oddsshark, the same Las Vegas odds website that gave LeBron to the Lakers very high odds prior to the July 1st decision, has given the Lakers the best odds to have Anthony Davis on their team to start the 2019-20 season. This could obviously be attained by a trade during the offseason, but the Lakers could also make an attempt midseason. For what it’s worth, Alvin Gentry, the New Orleans Pelicans head coach, was pretty adamant recently about not trading Davis, saying they wouldn’t even do it for Beyonce.
I don’t know how good at basketball Beyonce is, but I know the Lakers have some young guys that are good. A combination of them and the players on 1-year deals such as KCP, Beasley, and/or Stephenson could possibly be enough for a trade for one of those two superstars. Other players to look out for: Jimmy Butler, the disgruntled Minnesota Timberwolves star who is a free agent in 2019 as well as Damian Lillard who is on the Portland Trail Blazers who might blow it all up. Lillard has been rumored recently as possibly being a trade target of the Lakers, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see the deal go down once December passes.
There could even be a trade made that goes under the radar, such as the one Magic Johnson made when he dealt Lou Williams. Either way, pay attention to the rumors that fly around throughout the season revolving the Lakers.