3 players the Los Angeles Lakers could pair with LeBron and AD next year

Lonzo Ball

Lonzo Ball potentially offers the Los Angeles Lakers the best chance to get better while giving up minimal assets.

Ball is a restricted free agent this coming offseason. The New Orleans Pelicans have shown a reluctance to paying Lonzo Ball.

The Lakers could potentially use this to their advantage and lock up a player who they liked enough to draft long term in exchange for a one-for-one asset exchange.

Lonzo Ball sign and trade with Dennis Schröder going to the New Orleans Pelicans. Ball might be the better option, after all.

Hear me out.

The Pelicans tried to move on from Lonzo during the trade deadline with reports linking him with a trade to the Golden State Warriors.

The Los Angeles Lakers,after much back and forth conversations with Dennis Schröder and his agent, seemingly grew tired of the outrageous demands from Schröder and looked to potentially trade him away for Kyle Lowry.

This deal did not occur as the Raptors simply sought too much for an expiring contract.

This however does signal that the Lakers will not give into Schröder demands.

If the Pelicans don’t want to pay Lonzo and the Lakers don’t want to pay Dennis Schröder and both teams don’t want to lose their asset for no return, then maybe they could come to an arrangement that would allow for both teams to swap players in a sign and trade that would send Lonzo back to the team that drafted him and Dennis Schröder to the Pelicans who offers similar production to Ball but in a quicker and more compact package.

Lonzo Ball back on the Lakers brings back the secondary playmaker that the purple and gold have been begging for since Lonzo left. LeBron wouldn’t have to work himself to the bone every possession trying to get other players involved, Lonzo would be the primary ball handler (Pun intended).

Lonzo also comes back to the Lakers with a much improved 3-point shot. Ball has shot 39.2% from the 3-point line this season which would be welcomed by the Lakers. Lonzo is starting to develop that well-rounded game that many draft analysts likened to Jason Kidd.

While he might never be Jason Kidd, Lonzo is trending in the right direction.

Both the Pelicans and Los Angeles Lakers get players back. Whether the Pelicans value Dennis Schröder remains to be seen but losing Ball for nothing if they don’t see him as a long-term piece would be even worse.