Los Angeles Lakers: A hindsight tweak to make to the Anthony Davis trade

The Los Angeles Lakers finally added the second superstar that had dominated the team’s rumor mill for several years last offseason by trading for Anthony Davis. Not only did the Lakers get a second superstar, but they also got the most talented second superstar in the entire league.

In the trade, the Lakers sent Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart and a slew of picks to the New Orleans Pelicans, which included the fourth overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft that the Pelicans flipped for even more assets.

The Pelicans got that 2019 pick, a top-8 protected pick in 2021 that would become unprotected in 2022, a pick swap in 2023, an unprotected pick in 2024 and a swap in 2025 (h/t Tim Bontemps, ESPN). The Lakers technically only lose three picks in the deal, but the two swaps could turn a high pick into a very low one, just ask the Brooklyn Nets.

But that is not the concern. If the Lakers win the NBA Championship then it will all be worth it and almost a year after the trade, assuming Davis re-signs with the Lakers, the deal seems to be worth it.

However, with nearly a year of hindsight under our belts, we can make one small tweak to the trade that would have made it better for the Lakers. What is that tweak?

The Los Angeles Lakers trade Kyle Kuzma instead of Josh Hart.

The Los Angeles Lakers were reportedly keeping Kuzma out of any trade talks during last summer when they were working out a deal for a second superstar, committing to him as the one young asset that they would keep on the roster.

The hindsight portion of this trade does not even include the weird fit that the Lakers created by doing this. Even at the time of the Davis trade, it was questionable that the team decided to keep a forward knowing that their two best players are forwards and would be taking up most of the minutes.

With Kuzma failing to improve defensively and beyond the arc, that bad fit has been showcased this season, which led to the Kuzma trade rumors during the NBA Trade Deadline, which ultimately resulted in nothing.

Instead of being to keen on keeping Kuzma, the Lakers would have been better off including him in the trade package instead of Josh Hart. The Pelicans needed size and absolutely would have welcomed Kuzma in the package, as he had much more trade value than Hart.

By doing this, the Lakers might have been able to knock a pick off of the trad as well. Adding Kuzma probably would have been enough to eliminate one of the pick swaps, which would have been worth it for LA.

It would not have just been worth it for the pick, though, as Hart would have fit the Lakers perfectly. Imagine Hart getting the minutes that Rajon Rondo currently is getting. Hart is absolutely talented and versatile enough to take the ball up court as the second units point guard and can be on the court with LeBron James as an off-ball shooter.

He is an above-average defensive player, and while his three-point shot has not been great this year, he has shot as high as 39.1 percent in his career and would have been a more reliable option than Kuzma.

He simply would have fit better. Perhaps this would have opened the door for the team to bring in a true stretch four instead of someone like Quinn Cook. Maybe instead of signing with the Pelicans, Nicolo Melli would have signed with the Lakers as the Pelicans would have had Kuzma on the roster.

Melli is a stretch shooter that is shooting 36.1 percent from beyond the arc this season, nearly seven percent higher than Kuzma is. The two-year, $8 million contract he signed in New Orleans is pennies.

If we are playing a bit of revisionist history, it is clear that the Los Angeles Lakers’ one mistake in the Anthony Davis trade was keeping Kyle Kuzma instead of keeping Josh Hart.

But hey, at the end of the day, the Lakers still have Anthony Davis and the best record in the West, so we can’t complain.