3 Lakers who won’t last the entire 2022-23 season with the team

2. Lonnie Walker IV

When thinking about which Lakers are not going to last the entire season with the team you have to think about the logistics of a trade. Los Angeles does not have many contracts that they can trade for other players, with one of the exceptions being Lonnie Walker IV.

Walker signed the Taxpayer’s Mid-Level Exception with Los Angeles, paying him $6.4 million this season. If there is a player that makes around $8-10 million that Los Angeles is interested in trading for then Walker is going to have to be packaged with another player just to make the money work.

And while the team signed him with the one contract they could give out this offseason, it is not like they desperately need Walker on the roster. Los Angeles is loaded with guards and they could pretend that Walker is a wing all they want, he is not.

There is more than enough depth to trade Walker in a potential deal for a wing or for another area of need. That is why signing Walker to begin with no longer makes any sense, as LA could have used that money elsewhere.

It would take a coming-out party for Walker to stay in LA and that is not completely impossible. But with how he has played thus far in his career, it certainly would be surprising.