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.
10. Trading Lamar Odom to Mavericks for a Protected First-Round Pick and a Trade Exception
After the Lakers got swept by the Mavericks in the 2011 Western Conference Semifinals they knew they had to shake up the roster. That next season they attempted to make a massive deal that would have landed the Lakers Chris Paul and sent Pau Gasol to Houston and Lamar Odom to New Orleans.
By now everyone knows how that story ended, with Chris Paul never going to the Lakers because the NBA did not like the deal for the Hornets and vetoed the trade. Blocking that transaction, sent the Lakers scrambling because now they had to deal with their two disgruntled stars who just saw themselves get traded away.
The main Laker that was particularly upset by the deal was Lamar Odom, and he even requested another trade from the Lakers because of it.
He was then traded to the Mavericks, the team that caused the Lakers to want to improve their roster in the first place. He was traded for a first-round pick and an $8.9 million trade exception and never really played well for Dallas or any other franchise after that.
After retirement, Odom even admitted to the Vertical in an interview,
"“That trade from the Lakers basically ended my career and purpose, I was never really myself ever again.”"
This is easily one of the worst trades in Lakers’ history, at the time it upset the face of the franchise Kobe Bryant because Odom was one of his favorite teammates and a friend off the court. It also ruined Odom’s future in the NBA after he had helped the Lakers win two championships in the post-Shaquille O’Neal era and was fresh off a sixth man of the year award.
9. Trading Ivica Zubac and Michael Beasley to the Clippers for Mike Muscala
The 2019 trade deadline ended up being a disaster for the Lakers, and the biggest reason why was because they traded away a young talent with some upside, Ivica Zubac. If it was not bad enough that they traded a fan favorite to the in-town rival Clippers, they got back Mike Muscala, who gave them almost no production for the rest of the season.
Muscala was ultimately traded for because of the lack of perimeter shooting on the roster that was holding the offense back and causing spacing issues. However, when he arrived Muscala only ended up hitting 21 of his 57 3-point attempts as a Laker.
There was even more evidence that they wanted to add more reliable shooters when they traded another young player Svi Mykhailiuk for veteran sharpshooter Reggie Bullock to try to surround LeBron with more experienced players.
There were even reports after the trade deadline that Jerry West and the Clippers front office were surprised that the Lakers offered Zubac. Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com reported in 2019 that,
"“Shortly after the trade deadline, Clippers consultant Jerry West — who spent more than 40 years with the Lakers as a player, coach and executive — got together for dinner with old friends who also had former Laker ties, sources said. He couldn’t believe how Zubac fell into his lap. The Clippers, sources said, never even called the Lakers to inquire about Zubac. The Lakers made the offer and the Clippers gladly accepted. Sources said those at the dinner table shared a hearty laugh at the Lakers’ expense.”"
Zubac is still playing for the Clippers and despite some up and downs, he has carved out a role in their rotation. He is still only 25 years old and is a quality piece of the Clippers’ strong young core including Luke Kennard and Terrance Mann who are both 25 as well.
The Lakers are 10 and three against the Clippers since they gifted them Zubac. Obviously, that record is barely influenced by the Zubac trade, but it is a good indication of who the better team has been head-to-head since the deal was made.
Even with the addition of LeBron to this roster, the Los Angeles Lakers ended up missing the playoffs by the end of the season Zubac was traded. They ultimately tried to gain more experience and surround LeBron with more veteran shooters to try to make a playoff run that never ended up happening.
8. Trading Adrian Dantley to the Utah Jazz for Spencer Haywood
The Los Angeles Lakers trading away Adrian Dantley makes the list because they traded him way too soon before he had a chance to develop into a star for them. Dantley eventually became a six-time All-Star in the league and the guy they got in return for him, Spencer Haywood, only lasted one season with the team.
To make this deal look even worse, Haywood was ultimately dismissed from the Lakers during the 1980 NBA Finals for apparently falling asleep during practice because he had become addicted to cocaine.
This trade would rank higher on the list, but there was good reason to try to trade for Haywood at the time of this trade because they were in win-now mode. Haywood had won rookie of the year and MVP in his lone season in the ABA in 1970, and he was a four-time All-Star in the NBA after that, so he had proven more in his career than Dantley had at the time.
In HBO’s new show ‘Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty’ that depicts the Lakers’ Showtime era, they recreate the year that Haywood joined the team. They show Jerry West’s excitement at the potential of landing Haywood and the hesitancy the Lakers had before trading for him because of his troublemaker label.
He got that reputation from taking the NBA to court so he could come out of college early and play professionally. The show also portrays Haywood’s robust personality and personal issues that ultimately led to his downfall with the team.
While this was going on, Dantley was fresh off of his first All-Star appearance as a new member of the Utah Jazz. He went on to make five more All-Star teams with them, and the Jazz eventually retired Dantley’s number four jersey and that should say everything about how well he played for them after the Lakers traded him there.
Dantley even led the league in scoring for a couple of seasons while he was with the Jazz and his career average of 24.3 point per game is one of the best of all time. This trade could arguably rank higher on the list because it is one of the only instances where the Lakers traded away a future hall of fame player.
It was not like Dantley’s emergence into an all-star came out of nowhere either, he already showed major potential as the rookie of the year in 1977 as a member of the Buffalo Braves. With the Lakers, most of that potential was overshadowed by star players at other positions, but he could have been a big scorer for the Showtime era Lakers if they had just given him a bigger role.
This trade does not rank higher on the list because it did not take the Los Angeles Lakers out of title contention. The Lakers ended up winning four championships in the 1980s after this deal, and Dantley never won an NBA title, he even got traded from the Bad Boys Pistons before they won their back-to-back championships.
7. Trading away Eddie Jones to the Hornets for Glen Rice, J.R. Reid, and B.J. Armstrong
The Los Angeles Lakers’ biggest star in the years between championship teams of the Showtime era Lakers and the Kobe and Shaq lead dynasty was perhaps Eddie Jones. Jones helped lead the Lakers to the playoffs in his first two seasons before Shaq arrived in 1996.
After leading the Temple Owls to a surprise elite eight appearance in his final season in college, Jones was drafted 10th overall by the Lakers in the 1994 draft, made first-team All-Rookie and won the rookie challenge MVP in his first season.
Then after a few seasons in the league, he made the All-Star team with the Lakers in 1997 and 98. In the 1999 shortened season, he was surprisingly dealt to the Charlotte Hornets for Glen Rice, J.R. Reid, and B.J. Armstrong.
The peak of his career was the season after that in 2000 when he was once again named an All-Star, made 3rd Team All-NBA, and had his best statistical season averaging 20.1 points while leading the league in steals. He was even voted by the fans to start in the 2000 NBA All-Star game, and that speaks to his stardom at the time.
Like the trade ranked ahead of this one, this deal is not higher on the list because it really had no negative effect on the Lakers’ championship future. They ended up winning the NBA title in the 3 seasons after the Jones trade and the emergence of Kobe Bryant as the premier shooting guard in the league left little need for Jones on the roster.
Glen Rice was a big part of the Lakers’ first title run in their 3-peat, so this move cannot be ranked higher than it is. It does make the list at this spot because the Lakers once again traded away a player that went on to be an All-Star for another team.
6. Trading away Nick Van Exel to the Nuggets for Tony Battie and Tyronn Lue
Another Los Angeles Lakers fan favorite that helped bridge the gap in the nineties between Showtime and Shaq and Kobe was, Nick “The Quick” Van Exel. Fans fell in love with his highlight-reel plays and his speed that allowed him to get to the basket and into passing lanes on defense.
The pinnacle of his Lakers career was when he was named an All-Star in 1998 along with Kobe, Shaq, and Jones. Yet his best statistical season in the league did not happen until he was traded to the Nuggets.
In the 2001-02 season, he averaged career highs in points per game with 17.7 and assists per game with 8.4.
His improved level of play in the next few seasons after the trade is part of the reason why this trade makes the list. The biggest reason why it is ranked ahead of some of the other trades already mentioned is that the best part of the trade for the Lakers was the draft rights to Tyronn Lue, and Lue never came close to the offensive point guard Van Excel was.
At the time Tony Battie was thought of as the better part of this move, yet he never played a game for the Lakers. He was traded for Travis Knight who never averaged 2.9 points in two seasons for the Lakeshow.
This trade also makes the list because of the reason why it happened. Reportedly this trade was sparked by Van Exel shouting, “1-2-3….Cancun” as the Lakers broke the huddle in practice while they were on their way to being swept by the San Antonio Spurs.
Kobe and Shaq both took offense to his attitude towards losing, and it really showed that Van Exel was not on the same page as the two faces of the franchise. The Lakers might have been petty for shipping him off for something he said because Kobe never really played with another point guard who could score and dish as well as Nick.
5. Trading Caron Butler to the Wizards for Kwame Brown
After the Shaquille O’Neal trade, most people expected Lamar Odom to come in and be the second-best player alongside Kobe Bryant. It was Caron Butler that actually instantly had chemistry with Bryant and was the Lakers’ second-leading scorer in the first season after that mega-deal.
Los Angeles Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak decided to sell high on Butler the offseason after that surprising season and tried to buy low on a former number one overall draft pick, Kwame Brown. Perhaps they wanted to pair Kobe with another big man to mimic what they had with Kobe and Shaq, there was just one problem, Kwame could not play according to Steven A. Smith.
Brown never developed into the star that many thought he could become based on his potential coming out of high school. He might be the biggest example of a bust that probably could have benefitted from going to college instead of going straight to the NBA.
Bryant began to get frustrated carrying mediocre rosters, and specifically with Brown and they never developed any sort of cohesion on the floor. The only reason this trade is not higher on the list is that Kwame was eventually a part of the trade for Lakers great Pau Gasol.
This was yet another case of the Lakers trading away a player that became an All-Star for the team they traded them to. In the next few seasons that followed Butler made the All-Star team a couple of times for the Wizards, and he was even on the Mavericks team that swept the Lakers out of the playoffs and won the championship in 2011.
To this day Kwame is still mocked for not living up to his number one overall pick status and is labeled as one of the biggest draft busts of all time partly because of his time with the Lakers. Recently, he has even went on his social media to rant about how he is unfairly criticized for his time in the NBA and has called out former NBA players and challenged Steven A. to a fight because of it, which caused questions about his mental stability.
4. Trading Andrew Bynum to the 76ers and Two Draft Picks to the Magic for Dwight Howard
When the Los Angeles Lakers created the supposed super team in the offseason of 2012 that had Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, Steve Nash, and Pau Gasol on one team they instantly had title expectations. There were many that were already deeming the trade for Dwight Howard a success and putting his jersey in the rafters next to a long list of legendary Lakers centers.
That did not come close to happening and Howard ended up bolting to Houston after only one season wearing the purple and gold. This trade was also a double whammy because it essentially ruined Andrew Bynum’s career because his motivation for basketball was never the same after it.
Bynum was a solid young center who had contributed on a couple of Lakers championship teams but already had a bad injury history. They still could have treated him better than shipping him off for one disappointing season of Dwight Howard, or they could have used him as a trade piece for a star that fit better along with Bryant.
Howard did come back in 2020 and won a championship with Los Angeles, and that redeemed his image with Lakers fans. Yet even he knew not to wear the number 12 when he came back because of how terrible it went the first go around and that number being associated with so many bad memories.
This trade also crippled the Lakers’ future by giving away assets like a conditional 2017 first-round and a conditional 2015 second-round draft pick. The Lakers had already given up two future first-round picks in the Steve Nash deal, so this move was doubling down on going all in.
To be fair to Howard, they did trade for him when he was coming off back surgery. Also, his other running mate who appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated with him, Steve Nash, was basically a shell of himself due to lingering injury in the one season they played together.
Which is a perfect segue into the third-worst trade in franchise history.
3. Trading Four Draft Picks to the Suns for Steve Nash
Before the Lakers acquired Howard in August of 2012, they made fireworks on the fourth of July by sending four future draft picks to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for Steve Nash. The initial deal was a sign and trade that sent the Lakers’ first-rounders in 2013 and 2015 and their second-rounders in 2013 and 2014 to Phoenix for the future Hall of Fame point guard.
Lucky for the Los Angeles Lakers the 2015 first-round pick they traded was top-five protected and they had the number 2 pick in the next three drafts. The pick they lost eventually became the number 10 pick in the 2018 draft which turned into Mikal Bridges.
This trade ranks this high on the list because Nash only played around 75 games for the Lakers and in his final season with the team, he averaged a measly 6.8 points and 5.7 assists per game. They did make the playoffs as a seven seed in his first season with the team, but they got swept out of the first round.
The next season they even brought in his old head coach he had past success with, Mike D’Antoni. Even running his old offense Nash could not regain his old form from his Phoenix days and injuries caught up with him.
Nash broke his leg in the second game and could not come back until midseason, he only ended up playing 15 games for the Lakers that year. The Lakers basically gave away four draft picks for a bunch of hype and not much production on the court.
It was thought that Nash would help Bryant get the ball in spaces no other point guard in his career could. In actuality, they were both ball-dominant guards whose inability to stay on the court stunted their chemistry together.
Does that sound familiar to a recent trade?
2. Trading Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Montrezl Harrell, and the 22nd pick of the 2021 draft to the Wizards for Russell Westbrook
When the Los Angeles Lakers made the move to trade for Russell Westbrook, they knew they were going all in and if it did not work out, they would be in a difficult position to fix the roster. The move has obviously not gone according to plan, and they are indeed in that spot with limited options and assets.
Magic Johnson said earlier this season that the Westbrook trade could be the worst in Lakers’ history if they fail to make the playoffs. The Lakers have already been eliminated from postseason play, so apparently Magic would rank this trade as the worst one he has ever seen, and his tenure as team President was not pretty.
Westbrook could be looked at as a false scapegoat for this lost season because the big three of him, LeBron, and Anthony Davis only played 21 games together. The Lakers were in play in range when the Lakers had injury issues last year as well.
If the Lakers would have run it back with a similar roster as last year, they probably would not have made the playoffs if Anthony Davis missed as games as he has this year.
Everyone wanted this Westbrook deal to work because he was born and raised in Los Angeles and starred at UCLA, yet this season has been a nightmare from the start. Any time they got a decent win that felt like a turning point they would go on a losing streak.
The Lakers lost their identity when they made this trade because they traded away two solid perimeter defenders KCP and Kuzma, and they won the 2020 championship by having one of the best defenses in the league. Then Westbrook’s massive contract made less cap room for the Lakers to bring back perhaps their best perimeter defender Alex Caruso which made that problem even worse.
Westbrook has put up some of the worst numbers in his career this season while maintaining a high usage rate, averaging his lowest points per game since his second year in the league with 18.2. It was thought that he could help carry the Lakers when the injuries to James and Davis did occur, but the only thing he has led the Lakers to is an abysmal future.
It seems unlikely that Westbrook will be back next season, and with his trade value at the lowest it has ever been they will not get much back in any trade involving him. They will likely have to give something up to get a team to take on his massive contract because he will be the highest-paid player in the league next year.
The Lakers traded away all their depth and a pick for one season of Westbrook and perhaps the most disappointing season in their history.
Because they are strapped with three max contracts, it will be hard for the Lakers to build another contender to maximize whatever LeBron has left in the tank in his career. Their lack of flexibility to improve the roster now and all the valuable role players they gave up is why this trade ranks so high on the list, but it is not the worst trade the Lakers have ever made.
This one is…
1. Trading Shaquille O’Neal to the Heat for Brian Grant, Lamar Odom, and Caron Butler
The feud between Kobe and Shaq put pressure on the Los Angeles Lakers front office to make a decision to choose between the two stars that could no longer stand each other. Jerry Buss had the foresight to choose the younger budding star in Kobe Bryant rather than the established dominant MVP Shaq who was arguably the better player at the time.
Looking back on this move, it seems like they could have gotten more for one of the best players in the league and the most dominant force in basketball history at the peak of his power. Lamar Odom surprisingly never made an All-Star team in his career and when a franchise trades a legend like Shaq, they should at least get back one All-Star level player in return.
If the Lakers would have gotten Shaq and Kobe to get on the same page instead of shipping one of them out of town, they probably could have won at least a few more championships together. They both might have even reached Michael Jordan’s six championships which would have undoubtedly meant a ton to Bryant who idolized Jordan.
Instead, Shaq went on to win another ring in the next couple of seasons in Miami creating a similar one-two punch with Dwyane Wade. Kobe had to wait a little longer to win another championship, but he won back-to-back titles after the Lakers traded for Pau Gasol, one more than Shaq.
An argument could be made that the Westbrook deal is worse than this one because Gasol was traded for only after the Lakers acquired Kwame Brown for Caron Butler who was in this Shaq deal. Then the Lakers were able to win a title by the end of the decade they traded Shaq.
It is unlikely with how the roster is currently constructed that the Lakers will bounce back from the Westbrook trade to win a championship this decade. However, losing Shaq is a much bigger loss than trading a group of role players and a draft pick.
The Los Angeles Lakers should look at the past lows from the O’Neal and Nash trades and see that they have been able to bounce back from rock bottoms into title contention with the right moves.