Several weeks have passed since the Los Angeles Lakers did not make a trade at the NBA trade deadline and the buyout market has been frozen. There have not been many players who have been bought out and outside of Goran Dragic, the Lakers have not been tied to anyone substantial.
While the buyout market will heat up some as the season goes along, it feels safe to say at this juncture that the Lakers are going to miss out on the buyout market altogether. With the current status of the team, it would be legitimately shocking if the team could actually get some reinforcements this year.
There are three reasons why the Los Angeles Lakers won’t make a single buyout signing.
1. The realistic options for the Lakers don’t make any sense
We will get to the bigger possible names that could be on the market on the next page. When we talk about realistic targets for the Lakers, quite frankly, it is a bit disheartening. The Lakers really do not have any great options to target that would actually be in striking distance.
Heck, Zach Buckley of Bleacher Report predicted the fate of the biggest names on the buyout market and the three names that he gave the Lakers a chance to sign were not that promising.
The three players that he said the Lakers could potentially land are Cory Joseph, Robin Lopez and John Wall (who he also said is not likely to be bought out). None of those three players would add anything to the Lakers and the team might not even end up pursuing them because of that.
Wall won’t be bought out yet so he is out of this conversation. What do Lopez or Joseph add to this team? Nothing.