3. Including DeAndre Jordan in a trade for Jeremy Lamb
This trade is nothing like the previous two trades in which the Lakers would be flipping Jordan to a team that could use his services in exchange, essentially, for a free roster spot. This trade is more complex than that and quite frankly, would be much better for the Los Angeles Lakers.
Not only would the team bring in someone who can help in the rotation in Jeremy Lamb but they are trimming some of the fat of the roster in order to make more room for other players. Granted, they are taking on Lamb’s $10.5 million salary but they are sending out $10 million in the three players that they traded.
The Lakers would be paying slightly more but they would still open up two roster spots to potentially sign other players. They don’t have to use both of them but these roster spots are coming at a very cheap price because of the Lamb deal.
The Indiana Pacers are likely going to have a fire sale before the trade deadline and Lamb is not one of their premier trade pieces. He is having a somewhat down season and his value is not as high as it would have been if they traded him before the season. That being said, his value then still would not have been that high.
The Lakers have reportedly already been interested in Lamb and this is a fair price for him. The Pacers are getting draft capital in the second-round pick (the Lakers have two second-round picks in 2023) and could even hope to keep Kendrick Nunn around an extra season to flip him for more assets to a contender as well.
This might be unlike the other DeAndre Jordan trades that we mentioned but with the Lakers needing to throw in a third player, it makes all the sense in the world for Jordan to be included with how he has played and with the team playing LeBron James and Anthony Davis at the five moving forward.