2. The Los Angeles Lakers do not have the means to make a trade happen
Editor’s note: The Los Angeles Lakers have waived guard Quinn Cook and JaVale McGee has exercised his player option.
Even if you still love the idea of George Hill in the purple and gold alongside Schroder, when you start to break down how a trade could happen it becomes quite clear that the Los Angeles Lakers do not really have the means to go out and trade for the veteran point guard.
George Hill is set to make just under $9.6 million next season and the Lakers do not have that “in-between” contract to deal to make this happen. The Lakers would then be sacrificing a decent chunk of cap space while losing rotation players in order to get Hill.
The team is potentially losing some of its flexibility in the assets it can trade. JaVale McGee has been rumored to turn down his player option, giving the Lakers one fewer contract that can be lumped into a package.
Financially, the Lakers could make this work by trading Kyle Kuzma and Quinn Cook together for Hill, but is it even worth it at point? While we have talked about several different Kuzma trades this offseason, it really is not worth it to replace Kuzma in the rotation with Hill.
The Lakers would be losing $3 million in cap space and would not be gaining an extra body in the rotation. I would much rather see the team sign a veteran point guard to a small one-year contract and take up slightly more cap space rather than flip Kuzma for Hill and less cap.
If there were a way that the Lakers could trade Quinn Cook, JaVale McGee and a future second then sure, that would work but that is not realistic. At this point, it would have to include Kuzma and he is not worth trading for Hill.