2. Bringing Patrick Beverley back to Los Angeles
The Utah Jazz made a genius trade by flipping Rudy Gobert for expiring contracts and a boat load of picks to the Minnesota Timberwolves. While Minnesota is going to enjoy a better regular-season record with Gobert, that team is not going to contend for a title after this trade. Meanwhile, the Jazz get off of a contract that would have been really bad in two years and get a ton of draft capital.
Utah really should be in the business of blowing the entire team up and it would not be the biggest surprise if they also traded Donovan Mitchell this offseason. At the very least, they could take the Portland approach and keep Mitchell while trying to rebuild for one year and potentially even tank for Wembanyama.
Patrick Beverley is a nice piece for Utah if they are trying to contend but they likely are not trying to do that. Instead, the team might be better off flipping him for a young asset like Talen Horton-Tucker, especially considering Beverley is on an expiring contract.
Beverley would be a fantastic backup point guard for the Lakers regardless of who the starting point guard is. This team needs defense and Beverley would bring that defense and an edge that the team does not have off the bench.
Beverley did name LeBron James as his dream superstar teammate earlier this offseason. Perhaps that may have been foreshadowing for what is to come in the 2022-23 season.