The biggest focus as it pertains to the Los Angeles Lakers and the trade deadline is what pieces the team could bring in to improve the chances of winning the NBA Championship this season. There are quite a few proposed trade targets that the Lakers might pursue as the team shops Talen Horton-Tucker and its other assets.
While that is the most important storyline when it comes to the team’s success this season, it is not the only trade deadline storyline to follow. There is also the potential of the team moving lesser assets for draft capital in the future.
The Lakers are not going to get anything close to a first-round pick but they have players that could be flipped for future second-round picks. Even better, the Lakers reportedly want to move on from some of these players.
In a perfect world, the Los Angeles Lakers can pull off at least one trade that nets them a future second-round pick.
Our friends over at the Lakers Legacy Podcast broke down two potential trades that would net the Los Angeles Lakers a second-round pick. Like we have in the past with their Talen Horton-Tucker and Kendrick Nunn trade packages, we are going to break down both proposed trades and decide whether or not they could happen.
Let’s dive into the first trade, shall we?
1. Wayne Ellington to the Dallas Mavericks
The first proposed trade package sees the Los Angeles Lakers trading one of their shooters to the Dallas Mavericks for that coveted second-round pick. Wayne Ellington is not someone who has been caught up in the Lakers rumors as a potential player to be traded but that does not mean he is off the table.
Ellington does add a shooting dynamic to the Lakers but quite frankly, the Lakers have enough three-point shooters who do not play a lick of defense. If the team is expecting to land a cheap defensive trade target or even a defensive buyout guy, it makes sense to make room in the rotation by clearing Ellington and getting an asset for him.
Ellington absolutely has more value than some of the other rotation players the Lakers could trade and the right team absolutely would be willing to trade a second-round pick for him. Are the Dallas Mavericks the right team? I think so.
The Mavericks need shooters around Luka Doncic and they need to acquire them for cheap. Dallas only has three players in the rotation shooting over 36% from three and only one player shooting above 37% from three.
The need is even larger with Tim Hardaway Jr. fracturing his foot. While Hardaway was struggling from three this season, he still took the most threes per game besides Doncic. The Mavs need someone who can help fill that shooting void and Ellington would help for cheap.
Dallas has their 2022 second-round pick and they have a trade exception that they can use to take on Ellington without sending another contract to LA, which helps open a roster spot for the Lakers.
Ellington for Dallas’ 2022 second-round pick is absolutely a realistic trade for both parties.
2. Kent Bazemore to the Chicago Bulls
Just last week if you would have asked me if the Los Angeles Lakers could get a second-round pick for Kent Bazemore I would have said no. In fact, it seemed much more likely that the Lakers would have to trade a pick with Bazemore if they wanted to open up the roster spot. This is something the team reportedly did not want to do.
However, as is often true in the NBA, things have changed and a need has opened for another team with the team in question being the Chicago Bulls.
The Bulls, who are one of the best stories in the NBA this season as they have overachieved their preseason expectations, are arguably dealing with the worst injury luck right now. Alex Caruso fractured his wrist after a dirty play from Grayson Allen and will miss a significant amount of time, Lonzo Ball is having surgery to repair a partially torn meniscus and Derrick Jones Jr. will likely miss at least two weeks with a finger injury.
The Bulls need backcourt help but they do not have anything to really trade for a rotational player. The team has some first-round picks at its disposal but does not have a contract to pair those picks with to land a valuable backcourt player. They could wait for the buyout market but the best guy there might be someone like Gary Harris, who is not great.
That is why Bazemore is a potential option for Chicago. While Bazemore has been pretty bad for the Lakers, he was still pretty good for the Golden State Warriors last season and that might make the Bulls more willing to trade for him.
The Bulls do not have a second-round pick to trade until 2026, which actually helps the Lakers. If they had their 2022 pick then they could probably flip it for a slightly better version of Bazemore. But since it is a second-round pick four years from now, there are not going to be many takers.
The Lakers would obviously be takers as they get to free up Bazemore’s roster spot for free and get a future asset, even if its value is low. Meanwhile, the Bulls avoid making a bad move and simply patch up the holes in a smart and cheap way with some upside.