Los Angeles Lakers should not gut the roster for Anthony Davis

Should the Los Angeles Lakers give up their young core for Anthony Davis?

There’s been a lot of talk over the last week about how Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka have been saving all of the Los Angeles Lakers “young assets”, for a trade with the Pelicans. The common thinking around the league and among most fan bases is that when you get a chance at a top-5 player you go out and make a trade for him, no matter what.

Does this make sense though? Should the Lakers gut their roster for Anthony Davis?

I typed in a good example of what the Pelicans would want in a trade with the Lakers into ESPN’s Trade Machine: The Pelicans get; Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma, Josh Hart, and KCP. The Lakers receive; Anthony Davis. The trade works on the Trade Machine and please don’t think this is more than the Pelicans would ask for. There’s no way they’re going to actually trade one of the best players in the league for any less.

What would the Lakers roster look like after the trade?

Starters:

PG: Lonzo Ball

SG: Lance Stephenson

SF: LeBron James

PF: Anthony Davis

C: JaVale McGee

Bench:

PG: Rondo

SG: Svi

SF: Beasley

PF: Wagner

C: Chandler

The Lakers new starting lineup looks great on paper, but there are a few problems. First, the Lakers no longer have a real shooting guard. Do Lakers fans really want to see Stephenson and Svi taking all the minutes at shooting guard?

I’m feeling tense just thinking about it. The second major problem is that the Lakers would have 3 centers on the team, so Anthony Davis would be forced to play power forward. Anthony Davis is a great player, so he’ll make it work, but he went super-nova on the league after Cousins got injured last year and he took over the starting center role for the Pelicans. Now he starts at center and he spends most of his time holding down the middle, where he abuses opposing bigs on offense and stifles drives on defense.

The Lakers 2nd unit would easily be the worst in the NBA. I shudder just thinking about Wagner, Beasley, and Svi trying to play defense together. I can picture LeBron and Davis expending a lot of energy to build an 8-point lead in the 1st quarter, just to take a seat and watch their lead evaporate into thin air once the bench comes in. It would be ugly.

When I look at the what the Lakers roster would look like after a mid-season trade for Anthony Davis, I think we’d be worse than before the trade. The Lakers would lose 4 of their best perimeter ball hawks and they’d be left with some incredibly bad defenders in Stephenson, Svi, and Beasley getting major minutes.

In today’s NBA, perimeter defense is one of the major factors that separates the contenders from the bottom tier playoff teams. Look at some of the best teams in the NBA this year and the kind of defenders they can throw at opposing teams:

Toronto Raptors: Kawhi Leanard, Kyle Lowry, Pascal Siakam, and Danny Green

Milwaukee Bucks: Giannis, Khris Middleton, Eric Bledsoe, and Tony Snell

Denver Nuggets: Paul Millsap, Will Barton, Trey Lyles, and Gary Harris

Oklahoma City Thunder: Russell Westbrook, Paul George, Jerami Grant, and Andre Roberson

Golden State Warriors: Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Andre Iguodala, and Klay Thompson

What happened to the Houston Rockets after they lost Ariza and Mbah a Moute? They’ve sunk all the way down to 26th in the NBA in Defensive Efficiency and are outside of the playoffs looking in. Perimeter defense matters, and as of right now, the Lakers have some of the best young defenders in the league with Ingram, Hart, and Ball.

Many Lakers fans might have another thought in mind. Maybe they’re thinking the Lakers should trade for Davis this year, sacrifice the season, and then during the offseason go out and sign Kawhi, forming the next super team.

This sounds great in theory, but even if Kawhi does decide to sign with the Lakers, which is far from guaranteed, the Lake Show would still be incredibly thin. McGee’s going to get a major salary bump next year and good 3 and D players who are willing to play for close to the league minimum are extremely hard to find. I honestly don’t know if a team formed around an aging LeBron, Kawhi, Anthony Davis, and a bunch of minimum salary players wins a championship.

I’d love for the Lakers to pick up a 2nd star to pair with LeBron, I just don’t want Magic and Pelinka to sacrifice the young core at the same time. I’d much rather see the Lakers hang on to all their young players and then try to sign either Kawhi or Tobias Harris in the offseason.