Los Angeles Lakers: 3 reasons why Kyle Lowry could be a Laker

3. The Los Angeles Lakers have the assets to make a trade work and not even hurt the team

The Los Angeles Lakers were in talks to trade for Lowry at the deadline but nothing came to fruition as the Lakers reportedly did not want to trade Talen Horton-Tucker. What makes this situation so good for the Lakers is the fact that they don’t even have to trade THT.

While Toronto will definitely try and add THT to the package, all the Lakers really would have to send is Dennis Schroder, Kyle Kuzma and the 22nd overall pick in the draft. We already explained why a Schroder sign-and-trade is the most likely outcome and why Schroder would agree to it and Kuzma, quite frankly, is expendable.

If Lowry signs for a $35 million salary then Schroder could get his $21-25 million payday. That is a big contract for Schroder and Toronto could say no for that reason, but they would need a point guard and it would be easier to flip Schroder at that number in the future.

Add in Kuzma who has potential and could become a trade chip and the Raptors at least get something for Lowry. It is not like they are going to be a premier free-agent destination and even if they are, they could utilize Lowry’s Bird Rights to go over the salary cap and add two players that they otherwise could not afford.

Some NBA pundits might scoff at this package and say it is not enough. While it normally would not be, we have to remember that the Raptors have no leverage in this deal and sign-and-trade deals like this are usually one-sided because one of the teams is simply happy to get something out of nothing.

Let’s look back at the Chris Paul sign-and-trade. The Clippers got Patrick Beverley, Lou Williams, Montrezl Harrell, Sam Dekker and a first-round pick for Paul. While that panned out great for the Clippers, Harrell did not have that much value back then and the trade was really viewed as a two-man package of Beverley and Williams.

Is that package better than this one? Yes. But Paul is also one of the best point guards of all time while Lowry was not an all-star last year. The Schroder-Kuzma-pick offer is more than enough.