Los Angeles Lakers: The best trade in team history with the Indiana Pacers

The Los Angeles Lakers and Indiana Pacers have been trade partners four times.

In an ongoing series here at Lake Show Life, we are breaking down the best trade that the Los Angeles Lakers have made with every other franchise in the NBA. Today, we look at the trade history between the Lakers and Indiana Pacers.

The Lakers and Pacers have done trade business just four times. The first trade between the two teams happened in October of 1976 with the most recent trade happening in July of 2015.

The best trade ever for the Lakers with the Pacers involved a Hall of Famer. However, that Hall of Famer did not carve out a Hall of Fame career with either the Pacers or the Lakers.

The Los Angeles Lakers’ best ever trade with the Indiana Pacers:

Adrian Dantley is now a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame but it is not because of his contributions to the Los Angeles Lakers. However, he still is part of the best trade that the Lakers have made with the Pacers.

The Lakers swapped two role players in Edwards and Tatum for another role player in Robisch as well as an exciting young player in Dantley. Dantley jumped ship often early in his career, as he was traded by the Buffalo Braves to the Pacers after being named the Rookie of the Year 1977.

He played just 23 games with the Pacers before being traded to the Lakers, where he played the rest of the season as well as one more full season before being traded again to the Utah Jazz. In his 116 total games played with the Lakers, Dantley averaged 18.3 points and 6.4 rebounds per game.

Quite good numbers considering what the Lakers gave up for him.

Dantley is perhaps most known by NBA fans for being shockingly dealt by the Pistons in the 1988-89 season. Dantley did not have a great relationship with the team and despite being the team’s leading scorer, was traded for Mark Aguirre. The deal was shocking at the time but was part of the reason why the Pistons got over the NBA Finals hump that season.

RELATED: Could LeBron have survived the Bad Boy Pistons?

Dantley is one of the best scorers to ever grace the NBA court and for two seasons, he was a member of the Los Angeles Lakers.

He might not be remembered for being a Laker, but compared to the other players that the Lakers acquired from the Pistons, Dantley is by far the best.