Why the Los Angeles Lakers won’t trade Talen Horton-Tucker

2. The Los Angeles Lakers likely won’t trade Talen Horton-Tucker just because of a poison pill contract threat

Earlier this month, Brian Windhorst of ESPN said that Talen Horton-Tucker could get a poison pill offer sheet from other teams in free agency next offseason. This is potentially concerning for the Lakers, as THT could get priced out of returning to LA as a result.

While that is definitely on the table and we even tried our hand at picking where THT could sign on a poison pill contract, I do not think it is something the Lakers are worried about nor would trade him for.

By trading him, the Lakers are essentially giving up altogether on the chance of retaining him. And because of his small contract and the league not valuing him as high as the Lakers, the team won’t get anywhere close to the return they should get.

So they are going to punt on re-signing THT to get half a season of a mediocre role player because that is the only way the contracts can match? The only name that somewhat would make sense is Mo Bamba and that is only if the Lakers are legitimately worried about the poison pill, which I dod not think they are.

The team has operated like this before, giving us an indication that they won’t just panic and trade THT while they could get something with him. They did not trade Julius Randle prior to him being a restricted free agent when all conventional wisdom said they should have.

That was not even a contending team and they held onto Randle. If THT is going to play a role in the playoff rotation then they definitely won’t trade him this season.

It is obviously a possibility that he signs with another team, but the Lakers would simply be giving up their chance to re-sign a player they really like in return for mediocre help. I can’t see that happening.