Cleveland Cavaliers: Larry Nance Jr.
Larry Nance Jr. is the first former Laker on this list and is a perfect example of the team’s ability to find late draft picks and develop them into legitimate rotation players. Nance is a very solid basketball player as he just gets lost in the shuffle as a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
There is definitely going to be a Nance resurgence once his contract expires with the Cavaliers. He is going to wind up on a contending team and play a somewhat big role off the bench and people will realize how valuable he is. Perhaps the Lakers could start that process early by trading for him.
The logic here for the Cavaliers would be trading one year of Nance for multiple years of a young asset. While Nance is the better player right now, perhaps the Lakers could send a package of Kyle Kuzma and a future second-round pick for Nance. It is not the best return, but Nance also doesn’t have massive trade value.
He should though as he is an ideal player to add to a playoff rotation. Nance is solid on both ends of the floor and can score near the rim while playing above-average defense against opposing team’s fours and even fives.
He might not be the prototypical stretch four but his three-point percentage has gradually gone up in his career and he is not a nuisance from beyond the arc. He has always been in the positive and in the 80th percentile in terms of DBPM and while he was inefficient offensively last season, that would improve on an actually good team.