3 things that must happen for the Lakers to acquire Zach LaVine

3. The Los Angeles Lakers would have to give away Talen Horton-Tucker

Whether he is looped into this hypothetical three-team trade or if he is traded to a team with cap space like the Oklahoma City Thunder for a second-round pick, the Lakers would have to essentially give away Talen Horton-Tucker for free.

Why? Acquiring LaVine via a sign-and-trade would hard-cap the Lakers at the luxury tax apron of $149 million next season. As you know, the Lakers were over the tax apron last season and THT’s $10+ million salary contributes to that.

The Lakers would have to get him off the books in order to add depth pieces to stay under that $149 million mark. He simply is not worth the money that the Lakers are paying him and the team would have to simply give up the asset and let him go. Maybe he gets sent to the Knicks, maybe he is in Oklahoma City Thunder.

A max contract is projected to pay LaVine $36.6 million next season. The trio of LeBron, LaVine and AD would cost $119 million, giving the team $30 million to round out the rest of the roster. Los Angeles can bring back Kendrick Nunn, Stanley Johnson, Wenyen Gabriel and Austin Reaves for just above $11 million, essentially giving the team $19 million left to spend on eight roster spots.

This means that the Lakers would likely have to punt on bringing Malik Monk back unless he took the minimum again, which is very unlikely. The highest minimum salary for players with 10 years of experience or more is $2.72 million next season. The Lakers would have an average of $2.375 million per player with $19 million left to spend.

The depth would be shaky, that is without question, but that would be the cost of bringing in LaVine. Heck, the depth is probably going to be shaky anyways even without LaVine, so why not make the massive upgrade from Westbrook to LaVine?

Anyone saying it is impossible for the Lakers is wrong. It certainly is possible with these three caveats.