Los Angeles Lakers: 3 Trade scenarios for Kyle Kuzma

Minnesota Timberwolves

The Minnesota Timberwolves receive: Kyle Kuzma, Talen Horton-Tucker, Quinn Cook and Troy Daniels

The Los Angeles Lakers receive: Robert Covington

Let’s make this 100% clear, Quinn Cook and Troy Daniels are mere salary fillers for this trade. It is up to the Timberwolves to decide whether the players on their roster are better or worse than Cook and Daniels. I fully expect Cook and Daniels to be waived in any trade. This trade is merely for the Timberwolves to clear much-needed cap space while picking up two young prospects.

Robert Covington has not looked the same for the Minnesota Timberwolves this season. The defensive intensity of the Timberwolves has gone off a cliff and in return, Covington hasn’t been able to cover all the cracks in the Timberwolves defense.

If Covington was traded to the Lakers, expect significant changes to happen.

Adding a player capable of locking down other teams’ best offensive players is what Covington does and what the Lakers need badly. If Covington was able to play like he did last season on defense then the Lakers would have a 2nd player capable of locking down Paul George or Kawhi Leonard during the playoffs.

Covington is also a capable 3-point shooter, he isn’t going to shoot the lights out on a nightly basis but can give solid offensive output.

Adding Covington while not a blockbuster trade would give the Lakers significant confidence going into the playoff run.

With roster spots freed up by trading Quinn Cook and Troy Daniels, the Lakers could bring in Darren Collison to address their secondary playmaker needs and someone like Jae Crowder, Andre Iguodala or Evan Turner (All potential buyout candidates) to fill out the rest of the roster.

With Boogie Cousins also potentially available post-All-Star break, the Lakers depth chart could be rebuilt and offer them the perfect chance to make a deep playoff run.