Los Angeles Lakers: Ranking the best trades with every other NBA team
By Jason Reed
Ranking the Los Angeles Lakers’ best trades with each team, numbers 24-21:
24. Denver Nuggets
This trade was actually called one of the worst in franchise history by Jeremy Rucker of Bleacher Report but we now only think it was the best with the Nuggets, but better than four other trades that have made the list.
The Lakers acquired Tyronn Lue and Tony Battie for Nick Van Exel. Van Exel was solid and continued to be a solid player but Lue was better than he gets credit for, as despite the infamous stepover from Allen Iverson, Lue actually played solid defense on AI in the NBA Finals.
It hurt losing Van Exel, but he had to go.
23. Houston Rockets
The Los Angeles Lakers got two solid players from the Houston Rockets, they just came during a time where the team was irrelevant. The Lakers acquired Jeremy Lin and a future draft pick that led to Larry Nance Jr for Sergei Lishouk, who never even appeared in an NBA game.
22. Washington Wizards
The Los Angeles Lakers acquired big man Mel Counts from the Washington Wizards in a three-team trade back in 1967. On top of having the best years of his career with the Lakers, Counts was also traded later in what is the eighth-ranked trade of this list. We will cover that once we get there.
21. Toronto Raptors
You could probably make the case for this being lower on this list as the best player that the Lakers got in this trade was Luke Walton, but I do think it was important. Walton might not gave been fantastic but he was a solid role player for the team for many years and did win two championships in LA.