NBA trade rumors are starting to heat up and one player that the Los Angeles Lakers appear to be honing in on is Jerami Grant. Shams Charania of The Athletic reported that the Lakers are interested in both Grant and Ben Simmons, with Grant being the much more realistic option for the Lakers. A Simmons trade certainly isn’t happening.
While the Lakers rumors around Grant might sound appealing, trading for the current Piston would be a mistake by the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Lakers are going to look to improve by any means necessary and that might mean pulling the trigger on a Grant trade. And while it will be exciting at first if it happens, fans will quickly realize that it was a mistake. Let’s break down why.
Lakers rumors: Three reasons why trading for Jerami Grant would be a massive mistake.
1. Jerami Grant is currently injured!
Jerami Grant literally just sprained his thumb on Sunday and is going to miss at least six weeks as a result. There is still a trade market for him, though, and perhaps the Lakers are hoping that this injury lowers his cost and puts them ahead of the pack in terms of what they can offer.
While that is the glass-half-full way to look at it, the glass-half-empty, and much more realistic, way to look at it is to point out that he wouldn’t even play for the Lakers until after the All-Star Break!
This is a team that is struggling to stay above .500 and has already dealt with injuries this season. The last thing the team needs to do is bring in another player who is dealing with an injury. Not only will the Lakers miss out on some regular-season games, but they will miss out on some very important on-court time.
We saw it last season. Teams need time to gel together and bringing Grant in to play 20 games at the end of the season and expecting it to work, especially when the team has not even figured it out yet, is completely unrealistic.