3 playoff heroes who easily could have been on the Los Angeles Lakers

1. Spencer Dinwiddie

This one is painful for two reasons. Not only could Spencer Dinwiddie have easily been a Laker but if he was a Laker then Russell Westbrook would have never donned the purple and gold. In fact, Dinwiddie was included in what ended up being a five-team trade as a sign-and-trade that landed him with the Washington Wizards.

Dinwiddie lasted half a season with the Wizards and was traded to the Dallas Mavericks as part of the Kristaps Porzingis trade. He instantly fit in next to Luka Doncic primarily as a bench role player, averaging 15.8 points per game with 40.4% three-point shooting in 28.3 minutes per game.

The Mavericks are currently up 2-1 in the first round against the Utah Jazz despite not having Doncic and Dinwiddie is a big reason why. Dinwiddie has averaged 39 minutes per game in his three playoff games thus far while averaging 19.7 points, 6.7 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 2.0 steals.

So how could Dinwiddie have easily been a Laker? There were legitimate reports tying Dinwiddie to the Lakers last offseason with the LA native reportedly having interest in signing with his hometown team.

He wound up signing a three-year, $54 million deal in the sign-and-trade and the Lakers easily could have done a sign-and-trade deal with Brooklyn to get him in LA. Los Angeles could have packaged two of Montrezl Harrell, Kyle Kuzma and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to get Dinwiddie and the Nets would have been more than happy to accept.

The Lakers would have had a great third banana at point guard to add scoring presence, would have had more cap space and would have had more depth. Instead, they have a massive problem on their hands with Westbrook.