Los Angeles Lakers: The 12 best trades in franchise history

Best Los Angeles Lakers trades of all time: 10. Landing Robert Horry

Horry’s fate was sealed after he threw a towel into the face of his coach with the Suns, Danny Ainge. He knew without question that he would be traded and looked forward to a fresh start with a new team. When he discovered it was the Lakers, where he would join all-star Shaquille O’Neal and rookie Kobe Bryant along with coach Phil Jackson, he was thrilled.

Ceballos had played his first four seasons with Phoenix before being dealt to the Lakers in 1994. He flourished in his initial two years in LA where he averaged over 21 points per game. But injuries limited him to just 10 games in the 1996-97 season, and when he did play, he didn’t fit well alongside O’Neal in Jackson’s triangle offense.

Kleine played only eight games for the Lakers before being traded to the Nets. He ended up playing four inconsequential seasons for four different teams. Robinson likewise accomplished little in what proved to be his final season.

So essentially the trade was Ceballos for Horry. Looking at just the statistics, it might seem that the Suns got the better of the deal. Cedric outscored Horry the season of the trade and the next three years as well by a fairly significant margin, 14.6 PPG to Horry’s 6.6.

But this is a case where the numbers do not reflect the value of a player like Robert Horry. To begin with, he was a far better defender than Ceballos. He also played in the league longer, was an outstanding complementary role player to Shaq and Kobe and was a major factor in the Lakers “three-peat” of 2000-02.

In addition, Horry was a clutch shooter who earned the nickname “Big Shot Rob”. The most famous of his shots was the winning three-pointer at the buzzer to even the 2002 Western Conference Finals against Sacramento.

Almost everyone would agree that Horry was far more valuable to the Lakers than Ceballos would have been.