The Los Angeles Lakers have been very disappointing thus far this season and as a result, the Lakers rumors have been prominent. It is clear that the front office is trying to improve the team in any way it can and we have heard a multitude of Lakers rumors thus far.
Players such as Myles Turner and Jerami Grant are reportedly on the Lakers’ radar. There is even the hope that the team could trade Russell Westbrook, although it is very unlikely unless the team is able to pull off some massive multi-team trade.
The names mentioned above are the home run players that the Lakers are hoping to trade for this season. In reality, the team is much more likely to hit a single or a double, and the two recent candidates that have emerged are more of that speed.
Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report broke down potential candidates for the Lakers to trade for, naming Eric Gordon of the Houston Rockets and Terrence Ross of the Orlando Magic, specifically. While these are much more realistic, it shows the problem with the Lakers and their reliance on hitting a home run before the deadline.
Lakers rumors: Neither Eric Gordon or Terrence Ross make any sense for LA
In a bubble, both players would fit nicely in LA. Both Gordon and Ross could be nice role players that can score and shoot the three while also playing good perimeter defense. However, they are not massive difference makers and would not really raise the ceiling of the team all that much.
Plus, it would require the team trading Talen Horton-Tucker. Neither player can be acquired without THT (both for value and money purposes) and that is not a package that the Lakers should be interested in making.
If the team is going to trade THT this season then it has to trade him for someone who is far more impactful than Gordon or Ross; someone who can actually raise the ceiling of this team and not just be a complementary role player.
This helps hammer home the fact that the Lakers should have traded THT 10 months ago when they had the chance to flip him for Kyle Lowry.
We are still much more likely to see THT traded for a player of Ross or Gordon’s caliber than we are to see him traded for someone like Grant, though. There are other trade packages that simply beat the Lakers’ best possible offer for Grant, while Ross and Gordon will come at a much more obtainable price.
Would the Los Angeles Lakers do it? Maybe. They were desperate enough to trade for Russell Westbrook and are desperate enough to potentially fire Frank Vogel. Who knows what they are going to do at this point?