5 best midseason trades in Los Angeles Lakers history

3. Los Angeles Lakers trade for Mychal Thompson

Mychal Thompson was someone who Jerry West was eyeballing to backup Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for quite some time and finally, in the 1986-87 season the Lakers were able to pull off a relatively cheap trade that landed Thompson in LA.

Neither Brickowski or Gudmundsson was missed in LA and the picks that the Lakers traded to the Spurs did not amount to anything for San Antonio. The Spurs had the 23rd overall pick in the 1987 NBA Draft from the Lakers and with the pick they selected Greg Anderson.

Anderson showed some promise in his first two years in the league but that ultimately did not amount to anything for the Spurs. He was included in a package after two seasons for Terry Cummings, who had a good short stint in San Antonio but fell off quickly.

Thompson, meanwhile, went on to win two championships in four years with the Los Angeles Lakers. His tenure with the team was short and he was just a role player but he was an impactful role player in the late 80s for LA. Kareem was not the same player and having a quality backup like Thompson was so important for LA.

Thompson averaged 14.8 points in the final four games of the 1987 NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics to help the Lakers win the title.