Los Angeles Lakers: Three post draft lottery trade scenarios

The Los Angeles Lakers were one of the biggest winners of the NBA draft lottery, moving up seven spots to land the #4 pick. The Purple and Gold’s luck has opened the door to some very interesting trade scenarios during the offseason.

Every trade I’m going to propose revolves around one key idea that the Los Angeles Lakers must address during the offseason: LeBron James doesn’t mesh well with LA’s young core of Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball and Kyle Kuzma.

LeBron James has shown that if he’s surrounded with pure shooters, he’s unstoppable on offense. He’s one of the few pick your poison players left in the NBA.

If you guard him one-on-one, he’ll strike you with venom and get to the rack where he shot an incredible 76% during the 2018-2019 season. If you double team LeBron than he’ll use his precision passing (LeBron James finished last season 2nd in the league in potential assists at 16 per game) to bite you with a deadly toxin.

Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, and Kyle Kuzma are all very talented basketball players, but none of them are pure outside shooters. On the surface, it might seem like all the Lakers need to do is bring in two or three great 3-point shooters during the offseason.

But, for example, if Pelinka signs Seth Curry (45 3P%, 3rd in the NBA) and Danny Green (45.5 3P%, 2nd in the NBA) then who would play alongside LeBron? Would the Lakers start Curry, Green, and Ingram, next to LeBron and ask Lonzo and Kuzma to come off the bench? It doesn’t make sense for Frank Vogel to have two of his best all-around players come off the pine.

The smartest thing for the Lakers to do this offseason is to make a choice between LeBron James or the young core. Rob Pelinka and Jeanie Buss must choose between winning now or trying to build something great for the future.

Here are three trade ideas that would help solve the Lakers chemistry issues and allow the Purple and Gold to form a true identity.