The Los Angeles Lakers have been one of the most successful teams throughout league history because they have not made very many bad trades. However, there have been some hiccups along the way when they made some head-scratching moves, including this past offseason.
Trades that made the list were ones that crippled the franchise at the time the deal went down and created some of the franchise’s worst losing droughts. These transactions also ruined dynasties from continuing and created failed super teams.
Other deals made the list because they dealt away players too soon and those players had success elsewhere, or the trade ruined their career.
There are 10 really bad trades to look back on in Los Angeles Lakers history.
Hindsight is always 20/20 so it is easy to criticize these trades now, but at the time of most of these deals most fans, analysts, and obviously the Lakers front office thought they were making the right moves. I will even admit during the Westbrook and first Dwight Howard trade I thought the Lakers were headed for titles.
What the Lakers brass and I failed to realize at the time of these trades is that championships are not won on paper, chemistry and cohesion from one year to the next matter when trying to create a contender.
These trades go all the back to when Bill Sharman was the General Manager even before Dr. Jerry Buss owned the team. Then it recaps some of the worst moves from Mitch Kupchak’s long run as General Manager, all the way until today, showing some of Rob Pelinka’s blunders since he took over in 2017.
It might not be the time to kick Lakers fans when they are down and remind them about these franchise lows after this brutal season. But these bad trades throughout history show that the Lakers have made terrible moves in past and have come back into title contention relatively quickly, because well they are the Lakers.