What the Los Angeles Lakers could have looked like with DeMar DeRozan
By Jason Reed
What a Los Angeles Lakers trade for DeMar DeRozan would have looked like:
The San Antonio Spurs did not get a great package for DeMar DeRozan. It was a classic case of a player wanting to leave the team no matter what and the team getting whatever it could for him. The Bulls traded Thaddeus Young, Al-Farouq Aminu, a protected first and two second-round picks.
It would not have been all that hard for the Lakers to beat that offer to the Spurs. Here is what the Lakers could have sent to outbid the Bulls.
The Lakers traded two of these players anyway in the offseason so they absolutely should have been willing to trade both Kyle Kuzma and Montrezl Harrell for DeRozan. Kuzma is the young player with potential (which the Spurs did not get from Chicago) who Gregg Popovich really seemed to be high on during their time together with Team USA.
Montrezl Harrell is having a really good season and while the Spurs could not have projected that kind of bounce-back, Harrell is an expiring contract and he alone is better than Thaddeus Young. Throw in the 22nd overall pick in 2021, which the team traded for Westbrook, and this is a no-brainer for the Spurs.
DeRozan would join the Lakers on a three-year, $75 million deal and would be the third star behind LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Not only that, but the Lakers would have kept the perimeter depth of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, as they would not have traded him like they did for Westbrook.
After this deal, the players on the Lakers roster would be LeBron, Davis, DeRozan and KCP and that quartet would have had combined salaries of $114.5 million… which is less than the threesome of LeBron, AD and Westbrook.