1. Trading Talen Horton-Tucker for anything less than a significant upgrade
The Los Angeles Lakers have one trade asset this season in Talen Horton-Tucker. THT’s value is probably not as high as it would have been a year ago as he is playing on a higher contract and has struggled at points this season. However, because things are looking bleak, THT is the name that is talked about the most for a potential trade.
The Lakers need to be stingy with THT. There are a lot of possible players that the Lakers could trade THT for and the team has to make sure that it is getting someone who is truly making a significant impact (like a Jerami Grant, even if that is unlikely).
If there is no player that the Lakers can trade for of that caliber then they simply should not trade THT. If the best thing the Lakers can get for THT is the Jeremy Lamb/Eric Gordon/Terrence Ross type then the team should simply not pull the trigger.
It would be yet another example of horrendous roster management, for two reasons. First, the Lakers chose to re-sign THT over Alex Caruso because of his potential. Trading him for a player that is not as valuable as Alex Caruso is just asinine.
Also, the Lakers missed out on a great chance to trade THT 10 months ago that could have resulted in a long playoff push (or even a championship) that would have also made the team much better this season.
After picking THT over Caruso and not trading THT for a much better package, trading him for 75 cents on the dollar would be horrid.