Los Angeles Lakers: Three post draft lottery trade scenarios

The Los Angeles Lakers trade the No. 4 pick and Brandon Ingram to the Washington Wizards for Bradley Beal.

This trade would be a huge win for the Wizards who finished the 2018-2019 season with a record of 32-50 using Bradley Beal as their No. 1 offensive option. John Wall is set to miss all of the 2019-2020 season with a torn Achilles, and the Wizards depth chart behind Beal looks bearer than any team in the NBA right now.

The Wizards have to rebuild and the best way to do that is to trade Bradley Beal to the Lakers for Brandon Ingram and the No. 4 pick.

Brandon Ingram at age 21, averaged 18 points per game to go along with five rebounds. Next season, if he was given the keys to the Wizards’ offense it’s easy to envision him averaging 26 PPG, five RPG, and four APG, which would make him an All-Star.

The Wizards would also get the Lakers No. 4 pick in the draft and their own No. 9 pick, giving the Wizards three good young players to rebuild around.

A trade for Bradley Beal would show that the Lakers are playing for the present. Bradley Beal is a deadly spot-up shooter from outside who would feast off of the attention that LeBron James attracts.

If the Lakers traded for Bradley Beal they’d have to do some Olympic level salary-cap gymnastics, but after everything was said and done the Purple and Gold could have enough money to sign another max free agent.

It seems unlikely that Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, or Kawhi Leonard would join forces with LeBron and Beal in LA, but the Lakers could probably snag Jimmy Butler or Nikola Vucevic.

If the Lakers ended up signing Jimmy Butler (the most likely free agent to come to the Lakers) and Nerlens Noel, LA’s lineup would look like this next season:

Starters:

• Lonzo Ball
• Bradley Beal
• Jimmy Butler
• LeBron James
• Nerlens Noel

Bench:

• Alex Caruso
• Josh Hart
• Kyle Kuzma
• Moritz Wagner

The lineup listed above would be a top-4 seed in the West, but would they be better than the Warriors or the Rockets? Probably not.

That lineup falls more in line with the 2018-2019 Oklahoma City Thunder, because there’d be talent on the team, but not enough shooting, and too many egos.

Rob Pelinka and Jeanie Buss are going to have to think long and hard about what’s best for the Lakers because winning a championship behind LeBron James feels like a long shot, but trading “The King,” could also backfire miserably.