5. What if the Los Angeles Lakers traded for Kyle Lowry last season?
This is another what-if that I have mentioned in other capacities before here at Lake Show Life. The Los Angeles Lakers had the chance to trade for Kyle Lowry last season and dropped the ball. Why? Because they did not want to trade Talen Horton-Tucker.
LA reportedly refused to include THT in a deal for Lowry to create a package of THT, Dennis Schroder, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and some draft compensation.
Lowry went on to sign a three-year, $90 million contract with the Miami Heat, who are the no. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. THT went on to sign a three-year, $30.7 million contract that has made him an overpaid player.
What makes this worse is the fact that the Lakers were really shopping THT this season and could get anything for him. He has been awful this season (although he has been better in recent games) and his trade value is extremely low.
I get he is young but fans typically overhype the potential of their own players. THT is likely never going to get to the level that Lowry does and if he does it will be after the Lakers let him walk after this contract.
Lowry would have masked some of the issues with AD getting hurt and it is not crazy to think that the Lakers could have gotten past the Phoenix Suns in round one to give AD more time. From there, you can make a legitimate case that LeBron, Lowry and a healthy AD would have won the title last season.
Then the Lakers re-sign Lowry to the same deal, bring back Caruso, still have Kuzma and bring in the best role players from this year’s team and they actually have another title contender.