Los Angeles Lakers: The 12 best trades in franchise history

Best Los Angeles Lakers trades of all time: 11. Landing Mychal Thompson

When the Los Angeles Lakers battled the Celtics in the mid-80s, LA’s biggest problem was matching up with Kevin McHale. Neither Kurt Rambis nor A.C. Green were effective against McHale’s length and post moves. At the 1987 trade deadline, the Lakers arrived at a solution when they traded for Thompson.

The Bahamian native was a former #1 pick who had averaged almost 17 points and 9 rebounds in seven seasons with Portland. After a half-season with the Spurs, the Lakers were thrilled to pick up Thompson, & he was ecstatic about becoming part of Showtime.

Mychal played 4 ½ seasons with LA, and his value exceeded his modest statistics (9 PPG and 5.4 RPG). He was the best defender in the NBA against McHale, and he was also used to back-up Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at center. He typically played about half the game and was often in the closing lineup, especially on defense. The Lakers made the Finals four times and won two titles with Thompson, including the 1987 victory over Boston.

Among the traded players, Anderson played pretty well (7.3 PPG and 6.2 RPG) in 11 seasons) but neither Guomundsson (5.6/4.6) nor Higgins (6.3 PPG) did much.

Brickowski, however, is the primary reason this trade isn’t listed higher. Although he was not a top defender and contributed little for LA, he went on to have a pretty good career for four teams over the next 10 years (12 PPG and 12 RPG).

The Lakers certainly got the better of the deal, but not by quite as large a margin as they did in other trades.