The Lakers haven’t lived up to their expectations this season. If they make a move at the trade deadline, these four guys should not be involved.
No Lakers fan expected this team to be in play in territory this late in the season, and they are running out of time to right the ship. Based on their championship or bust attitude coming into the season, it is pretty safe to say that this experiment has failed.
At this point, no one would blame the Lakers if they decided to have a fire sale at the trade deadline and give up on this group that has not really had a chance to gel this season. Injuries have slowed the cohesion between the expected big three of Russell Westbrook, LeBron James, and Anthony Davis because they have only played a total of 17 games with all three of them in the lineup.
The latest reports have suggested that the Lakers will not make any major moves at the deadline. However, that has less to do with their desire to make a deal than it does their lack of assets to make any sort of move to dramatically improve this team.
Because the NBA has a rule that teams can’t trade first-round picks in back-to-back years the Lakers have no first-round picks to trade until five years from now.
Their best young asset, Talen Horton-Tucker, has depreciated quickly this season because he has not played well. If they were to ship him off now, they would be selling him at the lowest trade value of his career.
Even if they were able to pull off a miracle trade like one for Jerami Grant with a package including THT, Kendrick Nunn, and their 2027 first-round pick, it probably still would not be enough to propel this roster into championship contention.
Westbrook is the other Laker that has been in trade discussions throughout the season, and his contract is relatively untradable. One of the only trades that works money-wise that is not a superstar player would be to trade him again for John Wall. To make that happen, the Lakers would likely have to attach draft capital and that would make no sense for them.
One arguable snub from this list could be Carmelo Anthony who has played better than expected this season and has been one the Lakers’ more consistent shooters. The player’s age played a major factor in who made the list, and this late in his career he deserves a chance to play on a team closer to making a championship run.
Regardless of if they make a major move at the deadline this year, they should hold onto the players in this list as building blocks moving forward. Hardly anyone on the roster has played well enough to warrant an untradeable status, but these four guys have played the best this season in terms of how much they bring to the court compared to how much the Lakers are paying them.