The Los Angeles Lakers are going to look for any possible avenue to improve the team this season and a new possibility may have just opened up on Tuesday. Shams Charania and Bob Kravitz of The Athletic reported that Indiana Pacers may potentially be open to moving into a rebuilding phase and are accepting offers on their top players.
This is great news for the Lakers and any contending team that is looking to bolster their roster for a title push this season. Contending teams need teams like the Pacers to commit to the rebuild and the reason why Indiana might be willing to do this is that they have so many movable players and contracts with real value.
The Pacers are a contending team’s dream. While the players never quite gelled together, Indiana has so many solid rotation players that could push a contending team over the top, most of which are on one or two-year deals, which reduces the asking price of the players.
It makes sense for Indiana to go into rebuild mode when they might end up losing every significant player over the next two offseasons if they are not winning games this season, which they are not.
It also makes sense for the Los Angeles Lakers to try and work out a trade with the Indiana Pacers.
There is a wide array of potential targets in Indiana for the Los Angeles Lakers to inquire about. Not all of them are realistic for the Lakers and they will get outbid for certain players. That being said, there are three potential trade packages that are not only realistic for the Lakers to pull off, but would improve the team in the process.
Let’s dive into the three potential trade packages that the Lakers should offer the Pacers, starting with the biggest of them all and then moving down in scale.
1. The Los Angeles Lakers acquire Caris LeVert
Yesterday we broke down all the reasons for and against the Los Angeles Lakers potentially trading Talen Horton-Tucker this season. If the Lakers end up wanting to move the 21-year-old then they might try and make a move like this for someone like Caris LeVert.
When you first see this trade package you might think it is extremely unrealistic. LeVert has a relatively big name in the NBA and while he is not an all-star, he is one of the best non-all-star players in the entire league. That is all true.
However, LeVert has not been playing very well at all this season and with his health scares in the past there might be fewer teams that are in the market for LeVert. This could present an opportunity for the Lakers to trade for a guy that normally would have a much higher price. While Talen Horton-Tucker has value, he probably doesn’t get LeVert at his top value.
The Lakers would be taking a risk with this trade and would be hoping that LeVert could flip course this season and prove to be a positive impact on both ends of the floor. He would instantly fit into the starting lineup and would be a great addition to the closing lineup because at his best, he can defend and be an elite off-ball option for the offense. A closing five of Russell Westbrook, LeVert, Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James and Anthony Davis can win games.
As for the Pacers, they get a young 21-year-old that they can give heavy minutes to in order to develop in THT, a throwaway contract in Kendrick Nunn to fill out the rotation this year and a pick swap in 2025. Not a bad return in the slightest.
And while trading THT would be a tough pill to swallow, THT very well could opt out of his deal after next season and leave LA anyway while LeVert is a free agent after next season without a player option. THT has potential, but if we are just talking about a season and a half of LeVert vs. a season and a half of THT, the needle might swing in favor of LeVert.
That being said, if the Lakers don’t want to move on from Talen Horton-Tucker (and you couldn’t blame them) then there are other deals that they can explore.
2. The Los Angeles Lakers steal Justin Holiday
The Los Angeles Lakers are not going to be able to trade for the other big names on the Indiana Pacers. Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis are off the table, and quite frankly, do not give the Los Angeles Lakers what they need in order to be the best versions of themselves.
Instead, the Lakers can thumb down the rest of the depth chart and land at Justin Holiday as a potential trade target that would make a lot of sense on the Lakers. Holiday too isn’t having a great season this year but none of the Pacers are. The system there with Rick Carlisle just is not working.
The potential of Holiday is much more exciting than his production this season. Holiday has everything it takes to be a really good defensive player in this league and a head coach like Frank Vogel can absolutely make the most of him. Not only does he have the fundamentals of being a good defender, but his size and length are a huge advantage for him on the wing.
He would probably be the fifth scoring option if he was on the floor in the closing five but he can definitely still hold his own. His three-point shot is down this season but the previous two years combined he shot 39.2% on 5.4 attempts per game. With LeBron James feeding him, his shot should improve.
Holiday is exactly the kind of three and D wing that the Los Angeles Lakers need to add. They could throw him into the closing lineup to give the team at least one good defensive wing and if they really want to focus on defense they can throw out Holiday and THT together to guard the perimeter.
The return for Holiday is not great but he is not having a great season in Indiana to raise his value. Ironically enough, Holiday was traded for contracts and two second-round picks before, so this feels like a fair value for him again.
3. The Los Angeles Lakers make a cheap deal for Torrey Craig
If the Los Angeles Lakers have other plans and simply want to pawn off a cheap asset from the Indiana Pacers then the move might just be to trade for Torrey Craig. Craig was named as one of the uber-cheap defensive trade targets that the Lakers should target and as you can see by this package, he is pretty cheap.
The Lakers are only throwing two players into this deal to make the money work as Craig is making $4.6 million this season. What is great about his contract, though, is that it is also signed for the 2021-22 season. That is great news for the Lakers as it not only locks in a roster spot of next season but gives them a potential tradeable contract to package into a bigger future deal next offseason.
Craig is not an elite defender but in the right system with the right coach he can be well above-average and add that defensive presence on the perimeter that the Lakers are currently looking for. He is not as gifted offensively as Holiday and might not make the closing lineup but he can still give the Lakers 18-20 minutes of solid defense off the bench.
The Lakers are not losing anything in the two players they ae trading in this deal, in fact, they are gaining more than just Craig. Bazemore has been one of the worst players in the league this season while Bradley is on a non-guaranteed contract and was probably going to be cut the second a good buyout guy hit the market.
This opens up the roster spot for the Lakers to sign a buyout player without having to cut Bradley, which does not really matter but is at least good for Bradley. However, the Pacers would probably just cut him to save money, anyway.
Throw in a second-round pick for a small role player that Indiana does not even want and this is an easy, and cheap, trade for both sides to agree to.