The Los Angeles Lakers definitely do not regret not trading for Kyle Lowry

The Los Angeles Lakers did not make any trades back at the NBA trade deadline and instead turned to the buyout market to snag both Andre Drummond and Ben McLemore. Those signings did not help the injured Lakers’ cause much, as the team still found itself falling into the seventh seed.

The biggest rumor surrounding the Lakers at the deadline was that they would be making a play for Toronto’s Kyle Lowry. There were reportedly talks between the two sides that involved Dennis Schroder, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Talen Horton-Tucker for Lowry.

The biggest reason why this trade did not happen is Talen Horton-Tucker, who the team will regret not trading if they cannot re-sign him in the offseason. However, while that might be true, it does not mean that the Lakers missed some big opportunity in trading for Kyle Lowry.

Zach Buckley of Bleacher Report named this trade as one of four deadline deals that should have been made this season. Buckley’s reasoning is as followed:

"“L.A. might have more incentive than anyone to prioritize the present over the future. Landing Lowry would have been the ultimate expression of that. He still ranks among the very best at his position and is one of only six players averaging 17 points, seven assists and two three-pointers. He could have unlocked the Lakers’ half-court attack without disrupting their top-ranked defense.”"

While I understand where Buckley is coming from and Lowry certainly is a very talented point guard, the Los Angeles Lakers were absolutely correct to pull the plug and not conduct this trade at the deadline.

Why the Los Angeles Lakers have no regrets about not trading for Kyle Lowry:

The first reason is the depth of the position. Sure, the Lakers would have snagged a talented veteran point guard who certainly would have helped navigate the offense with LeBron James out, but at what cost?

Nearly the entire backcourt. Not only would the Lakers be losing a talented young member of the backcourt in THT, but they would have been losing both starters as well. Granted, one of those starters is instantly replaced by Lowry, but the depth would have been a problem.

The Lakers would have then had a starting backcourt of Lowry and Alex Caruso, which is really solid defensively and can work. However, the depth behind that would be suspect. Wesley Matthews and Ben McLemore would have been the next two options and quite frankly, that is not a great outlook for the Lakers.

Lowry would not have fixed what the Los Angeles Lakers’ current problem is: health. While Lowry is a well-respected player throughout the league, he is still the point guard of a Raptors team that was extremely disappointing this season. Do we really think he would have piloted the Lakers to a much better record without LeBron and AD than Schroder did? Probably not.

And while his play style as a point guard meshes really well with LeBron James as he does not need the basketball, the Lakers would simply be losing too much scoring presence in this deal.

Lowry has averaged 19.2 points created off of assists per game this season. Schroder has averaged 15.5 points created off of assists per game. Basic math gets us to 38.4 points that Lowry is responsible for per game, while Schroder has been responsible for 31.

Of course, there is more than just the numbers, but are those 7.4 extra points at the point guard position worth downgrading at shooting guard and losing THT altogether? Probably not. I’ve been hyper-critical of Dennis Schroder this season but at this point, Lowry is not as big of an upgrade over Schroder as the common NBA fan might think.

In fact, Schroder has a better DBPM than Lowry this season! Lowry has been more efficient offensively than Schroder but has not been good enough to warrant a three-for-one backcourt package.

Is it a fun what-if? Sure. Is it a move the Los Angeles Lakers are going to regret if they don’t win the title? Not at all.