Over the last several years since LeBron James joined the Los Angeles Lakers, we have seen the organization (in an effort to fully utilize his seemingly unending prime) do everything they can to ensure that LeBron not only is content but in a position to compete for a championship.
The LeBron coin does have two sides, however. While we’ve seen the team be lifted to championship heights for the first time since the days of Kobe and Pau, we as fans of the purple and gold have also had to bid farewell to some fantastic young players who have sprouted into quite the talents league-wide.
In this article, we’ll take a look at who some of those players are, and who would best fit the current Lakers team.
The preresequites:
Before the King claimed his throne in Los Angeles, there were a few young players who were shown the door to eventually make room for LeBron. Looking back in hindsight, the trades the Lakers made in 2018 were paving the way for LeBron to come to LA.
At the trade deadline, we saw the Lakers give up Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance to LeBron’s Cavaliers. Nance has continued to be a nice role player for the teams he’s played for providing valuable minutes for the Cavaliers, Pelicans, and Trail Blazers. Clarkson, on the other hand, has developed into quite the scorer even going on to win Sixth Man of the Year with the Utah Jazz.
The Summer of Bron was then upon us which meant bidding farewell to another young talent in Julius Randle. The Lakers decided to let him become a free agent, knowing they had to save every penny they could to secure James.
Randle ended up signing a 2-yr $18m contract with the Pelicans before really vaulting into success in New York with the Knicks. While his time with the team has been rocky, Randle has asserted himself as a dominant forward and a 20ppg scorer.
The Anthony Davis trade
The Pelicans have agreed to a deal to trade Anthony Davis to the Lakers for Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart, and three first-round picks – including the No. 4 overall in 2019 Draft, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 15, 2019
With James coming to town this quickly changed the timeframe of the team and this showed the following summer. The Lakers pulled off a massive league-altering trade sending Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, and Josh Hart to the New Orleans Pelicans for All-NBA talent Anthony Davis.
Lonzo Ball has both shown flashes of excitement and disappointment similar to his time in LA. While he continually seems to improve not only on the defensive end but more importantly with his three-point shot, he still can’t seem to shake the injury bug that’s plagued him his entire time in the league.
Brandon Ingram on the other hand has been nothing short of fantastic. Deep Vein Thrombosis discovered in 2019 had teams fearing if he’d ever reach his full potential. Progressively getting better and better, Ingram has certainly quieted that noise to the tune of being a 20-point-plus scorer and even being selected to his first All-Star game this previous season.
Josh Hart similar to Larry Nance has by no means shown himself to be an All-NBA talent, yet has contributed nicely to both the Pelicans and now the Trail Blazers.
Rob Pelinka’s fault?
While technically all of these moves in some way shape or form were the doing of Lakers GM Rob Pelinka, the next few not only sting to see walk away, but leave you scratching your head as to why.
Following the 2020 championship, we saw the Lakers make moves to bring in valuable players such as Montrezl Harrell, Marc Gasol and Dennis Schröder in an attempt to repeat. While talented the chemistry simply wasn’t there and that paired with LeBron and AD struggling with injury lead the franchise to make drastic changes the following offseason.
In a blockbuster move, the team decided to send Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and Harrell to the Washington Wizards in what would come to be a disastrous trade for Russell Westbrook. While it made sense at the time, what in turn ended up happening was Westbrook’s contract was so massive that it forced the Lakers to relinquish Alex Caruso to free agency.
Kyle Kuzma went on to have a very nice season in a larger role with the Wizards averaging 17 points and 8.5 rebounds for the team. Caruso eventually signed with the Chicago Bulls, where we saw him take on the role of defensive enforcer for the team and continued to do all the small things to perfection, similar to how he operated in LA.
Who fits best now on the Los Angeles Lakers?
While you could make a case that a team comprised of all the young talent we’ve shipped off could be a possible playoff team, for the sake of the article we only will select one. I believe that the best most seamless fit onto the current roster would happen with Alex Caruso.
He may not boast the star power of Brandon Ingram or Julius Randle, but for what the current needs of the team are he’s not only a good fit, he’s a great fit. Caruso would not only provide the team with a reliable wing player which the Lakers desperately need, but he’d be able to do the same things he did in his previous stint with the team.
Three-point shooting and more importantly elite wing defense are a necessity in this league and both are skills that Caruso thrives in. It doesn’t hurt that he and LeBron consistently put up +/- numbers that ranked among the top duos in the league either.
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At the end of the day, it’s easy to play the what-if game when looking at some of the players we’ve seen leave the team, but one thing I think all Lakers fans will agree on is that we’d all love a little bit of the Carushow right about now.