Los Angeles Lakers: The roster if LA traded for Buddy Hield instead

The big move that the Los Angeles Lakers made this offseason was trading for former MVP, Russell Westbrook. It was a bold move for Rob Pelinka to make as Westbrook has one of the biggest contracts in sports and has not had much deep playoff success.

The move was made and with Anthony Davis and LeBron James also on the payroll, the Lakers were restricted on what they could do moving forward. That being said, it is safe to say that Pelinka did a great job in building a roster that is legitimately deep.

There was another route the Lakers could have taken as well. Prior to the Westbrook trade, it was heavily rumored that the Lakers were working on a deal for Sacramento’s Buddy Hield. While the exact potential package was not reported, it was believed to be based around Kyle Kuzma and Montrezl Harrell (likely with the 22nd overall pick involved).

We will never know whether or not the Kings would have said yes to this deal but the money was right for both sides.

Some fans preferred Hield over Westbrook and it is not hard to see why. While Westbrook is an all-star, Hield is a great scorer who seemingly would have fit with LeBron and AD perfectly as a third scorer and the team’s best shooter. If the Lakers would have gone with Hield the rest of the offseason would have looked different as well.

Just as a fun thought exercise, we thought it would we interesting to look at how the Los Angeles Lakers roster would have looked if the team traded for Buddy Hield instead.

The Los Angeles Lakers roster if the team traded for Buddy Hield instead of Russell Westbrook:

We are going to assume that the Los Angeles Lakers would have signed most of the same veteran minimum players as they did this offseason. There will be some changes, though, which will be outlined along the way.

There are two instant changes just with the trade itself. First, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who was traded to Washington, probably would not have been included. That is another player the Lakers would not have had to replace.

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Hield carries a $23 million cap hit next season. KCP carries a $13 million cap hit next season. The addition of Hield, plus the team keeping KCP’s contract, would have still been cheaper than Westbrook’s cap hit of $44.2 million ($8.1 million less).

The team still would have gone over the luxury tax but this extra $8.1 million would have allowed the team to re-sign a player that they let walk. Alex Caruso signed a four-year, $37 million deal with the Chicago Bulls. Caruso reportedly preferred to stay with the Lakers and would have went back for cheaper.

The Lakers ultimately did not re-sign him because the luxury tax implications would have been massive. It would have put them in a higher luxury tax tier and while his salary was just over $9 million, they would have had to pay far more in taxes.

However, with the extra $8.1 million they could have re-signed Alex Caruso. We know he would have taken less and that is not a massive pay cut. Even if he didn’t take less, the Lakers probably would have been willing to pay him $9 million as they had $8.1 million extra.

The biggest difference is Alex Caruso would have returned. The rest of the team would have shaped out the same, although there are probably some players that would not have been signed because of the depth of the team.

I doubt Kent Bazemore would have been signed with Caruso and KCP on the roster. There is another guard spot in the rotation that would have been taken up, so one of Rajon Rondo, Wayne Ellington, Malik Monk or Kendrick Nunn would not have been able to be signed.

With Hield being such a good three-point shooter, I would bet that Ellington would not have been a priority and ultimately would not have been signed.

The rest of the roster moves would have likely shaken out the same way. The starting five would have been something along the lines of:

• PG: Alex Caruso
• SG: Buddy Hield
• SF: LeBron James
• PF: Anthony Davis
• C: Dwight Howard

If the team wanted to start small they could put Davis at the five and start Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. That is likely what the crunchtime lineup would have been.

The rotation behind the starting five would have been:

• 6: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
• 7: Carmelo Anthony
• 8: Kendrick Nunn
• 9: Malik Monk
• 10: Talen Horton-Tucker
• 11: DeAndre Jordan
• 12: Trevor Ariza
• 13: Rajon Rondo
• 14: Marc Gasol

Still a very deep roster. Instead of having Westbrook, Bazemore and Ellington the Los Angeles Lakers, theoretically, could have had Hield, Caldwell-Pope and Caruso.

Is this a better version of the Los Angeles Lakers? That is for the readers to decide. Let us know in the comments down below.