The Los Angeles Lakers are looking to shake up the roster as we near the halfway point of the 2021-22 NBA season. The Lakers have been extremely disappointing this season and just like every other disappointing LeBron James-led team at the trade deadline, moves will be made.
The Lakers made their first move of the season by trading Rajon Rondo in a three-way deal that essentially just opened up a roster spot for free. The team can now re-sign Stanley Johnson.
The Lakers did this to avoid outright releasing Rondo and then signing someone. The team would have had to pay Rondo’s salary and the tax implications of it as well as the new contract brought in and those tax implications.
The Lakers are reportedly also looking to trade DeAndre Jordan and Kent Bazemore for the same reason. While we already broke down three potential trade packages for Jordan, it is a bit harder for Bazemore. Why?
It makes no sense for the Los Angeles Lakers to trade Kent Bazemore.
It certainly is not because he is playing well this season because he has not been. He has been horrible and has played himself out of the rotation. However, this is a different situation from Rondo and even Jordan. The only way a Bazemore trade makes any sense is if he is included in a bigger deal for someone else. However, recent NBA rumors seem to strike down any potentially big trade for the Lakers.
There are two important reasons why it makes no sense for the Lakers to trade Kent Bazemore at any point this season. Let’s dive into them.
1. The Los Angeles Lakers are going to have to trade assets to move off of Kent Bazemore
The Los Angeles Lakers did not have to attach anything to the Rajon Rondo trade as the Cleveland Cavaliers had a use for Rondo. The Cavaliers were looking to replace the void that Ricky Rubio left behind when he suffered a season-ending injury. For that reason, it made a ton of sense for the Cavs to trade a non-guaranteed contract for him.
Heck, even DeAndre Jordan can make that same case. While Jordan has been bad this season, if there is a team that is lacking size and a rebounding prowess then they could talk themselves into trading a non-guaranteed contract for Howard. It does not harm.
That same avenue is not available for Bazemore. Sure, you could say in theory that a team might take a chance on Bazemore since the price is so low but the only teams that would even have that mindset are playoffs teams. A lottery team is not going to bring Bazemore in hoping that he can turn it around in half a season.
Bazemore has no use like Rondo or Jordan because he has been so awful this season. He has played horrendous defense and has not shot efficiently at all. If he was a valuable player to a playoff team then the Lakers wouldn’t be looking to replace him!
For that reason, the only possible trades that make sense (for the other side) is a deal where the Lakers send him to a bad team for a non-guaranteed contract. However, a bad team isn’t going to just do this trade to do the Lakers a favor. They are going to want to get something in return.
The return won’t be high but the Lakers would have to attach a second-round pick to make this possible. While second-round picks are not the most valuable thing in the NBA, there certainly are better uses for them than moving off Bazemore just to open up a roster spot.
Especially when there is another alternative…
2. The Los Angeles Lakers can afford to just outright release him
The reason why the Los Angeles Lakers want to trade Kent Bazemore is so they don’t have to pay his salary on the books and the tax implications that come with it. By trading him for a non-guaranteed contract, they would essentially zero out the rest of his contract and replace it with someone new.
While it makes sense to save money when you can, it is not like the Los Angeles Lakers can’t afford to do this. It is not like Bazemore has a massive contract and whoever the Lakers are going to sign is going to have a massive contract.
Bazemore is on a minimum deal and the new contract would be on a minimum deal. Sure, it would cost them another $5 million so in just luxury tax payments but why should the fans care? This is a billion-dollar sports franchise. The second-most valuable in the NBA. And they cannot afford a small extra tax hit?
Not re-signing Alex Caruso, while I disagreed with it, could at least be talked about because the tax hit would have been so much higher because of his salary. They still could have afforded it but it’s easier to explain and not sound like a penny pincher.
This is just ridiculous. Do the Lakers really want to trade a future asset when they do not have many future assets just to save some money? I’m all for trading picks to improve the team but the Lakers are only going to marginally improve the team by letting Bazemore go and signing someone else. Plus, they can make that improvement without trading the asset!
This is not a small-market team. This is not a team that was blindsided by a lower salary cap and is over budget. This is a team that willingly and knowingly traded for one of the most expensive contracts in the league when they already had two max guys on the books.
This is not something where they are even trading picks to get off of a massive contract, like Westbrook. This would be the team trading a future asset to save a marginal amount. Again, this is a billion-dollar sports franchise we are talking about.