The Los Angeles Lakers and Utah Jazz have been trade partners six times.
In an ongoing series here at Lake Show Life, we have been breaking down the best trade that the Los Angeles Lakers have made with every other team in the NBA. Today, we breakdown the best trade ever with the Utah Jazz.
The Lakers and Jazz have been trade partners six times, most recently in June of 2017. The first time that the two teams conducted trade business was in June of 1974.
The Lakers landed one of the greatest players in franchise history, and NBA history, as a result of a trade with the Utah Jazz. It is not only the best trade that the team has made with the Jazz, but arguably the best trade the team has made in franchise history.
The Los Angeles Lakers’ best ever trade with the Utah Jazz:
When you just look at the picks that both teams traded each other it looks like a highway robbery for the Los Angeles Lakers, but the picks were not the only thing involved. The entire reason why the Jazz were trading draft picks to the Lakers in the first place is because they signed Gail Goodrich, who was coming from the Lakers.
At the time, league rules stated that teams must get compensation if they lost a veteran free agent. Thus, the greatest trade in team history was born.
The Lakers received three first-round picks for their one and it really worked out as the then-New Orleans Jazz were the worst team in the NBA in the 1978-79 season. The Lakers had the draft rights to the pick, won the first overall pick coinflip with the Chicago Bulls and drafted Magic Johnson.
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And the rest was history. Johnson went on to be arguably the greatest point guard in the history of the sport and one of the superstars, alongside Larry Bird, that really kick-started the NBA in the 1980s.
What the Jazz got as a result of this was a veteran, aging Goodrich who was not the same player that he once was. Goodrich played three seasons with the Jazz, only playing 27 games in his first season, and posted the three worst scoring totals of his career since the first three seasons of his career with the Lakers.
The Lakers did not keep all of the draft picks that the Jazz sent them but they absolutely hung on to the right one. They kept Kenny Carr for three years before trading him to the Cavaliers for two second-round picks.
They traded the eighth overall pick in the 1978 NBA Draft in a package to the Boston Celtics for Charlie Scott. The second-round pick in 1980 was traded alongside a 1981 second-round pick and Oliver Mack for Mark Landsberger.
In the end, the only thing that matters is that the Los Angeles Lakers were able to draft Magic Johnson, and were able to draft him simply by losing Gail Goodrich in free agency.