1. The Los Angeles Lakers need to improve but have limited options
While injuries ultimately derailed the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the playoffs, I cannot wholeheartedly say that the team would have won the NBA Finals with Anthony Davis healthy. They certainly would have gotten past Phoenix, but the supporting cast around AD and LeBron James just did not fit.
The Lakers’ title window is not that long with LeBron James turning 37 in December and they have to make bold moves to capitalize on this window in which LeBron is still an All-NBA player, assuming he remains one of the 15 best players next season.
The problem is that the team does not have much to do. This is not the same situation where they have a ton of assets to trade for a superstar and they do not really have the cap to sign any big-name free agent, not that there is anyone notable anyway. The options are limited, which is why Walker makes sense.
Again, this is all about upside. Walker has not been the same player in Boston that he was in Charlotte but you take the risk that he can figure it out, stay healthy and give the Lakers 85% of what that was in Charlotte. If he can do that, the Lakers get their third running mate alongside LeBron and AD.
If not, the Lakers at least get a veteran point guard who can take some of the playmaking duties off of LeBron James.
The Lakers can utilize the Bird Rights they acquired when trading for Dennis Schroder to include him in a sign-and-trade deal for Kemba. The Celtics initially were not a team that I forecasted to be in the market for a Schroder sign-and-trade, but this changes everything.
Schroder would get his payday of $20 million or so and the Lakers would add other assets on top of that in order to make the deal work. The best part? The Lakers would not have to pay much for Schroder, because of the situation that the Celtics are in.