1. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
As frustrating as Kentavious Caldwell-Pope could be at points, he was still a very important player on the Los Angeles Lakers. Quite frankly, Laker fans probably did not appreciate what KCP was bringing to the team as a defender and a three-point shooter.
KCP was not an all-around lockdown defender but he represented one of several solid perimeter defenders that the team had on the roster. This year’s team is really bad defensively and is lacking quality perimeter defenders.
The best perimeter defenders the team has is probably Avery Bradley, Stanley Johnson and Talen Horton-Tucker. KCP is better than all three of those players when it comes to perimeter defense and is certainly better offensively. All three are really inefficient offensively.
Keeping KCP obviously could have been easy… all the team had to do was not trade for Russell Westbrook! Heck, the reported trade for Buddy Hield that never was was going to include Montrezl Harrell and Kyle Kuzma. If the Lakers do that trade instead they still have KCP.
KCP would instantly be the best all-around guard on this team and that is saying something about the status of the Lakers.