The Los Angeles Lakers have essentially locked in their roster for the 2022-23 season with Lakers training camp right around the corner and no impending moves on the horizon. While the team could surprise us, most fans have already come to the acceptance that this is the roster the team will have.
And that is not very exciting. After one of the most disappointing seasons in franchise history, the front office has not done enough this offseason to convince anyone that they will contend this season.
In-season moves are going to have to happen if Los Angeles is going to have any chance of contending this season. Because of that, we can pinpoint which Lakers players likely won’t finish the 2022-23 season with the team.
3 Lakers who won’t last the entire 2022-23 season:
1. Russell Westbrook
Let’s get the obvious one out of the way first. It is very unlikely that Russell Westbrook finishes the entire season with the Lakers. For that to happen, Westbrook would have to genuinely change his style of play to fit in with LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Nothing in his career indicates that will happen.
This does not guarantee that a Westbrook trade will happen. However, it is an easier sell in February than it is in September. At that point, Westbrook will only have half of his yearly salary on the books and whatever team is trading for him would be paying less to buy him out. Plus, the Lakers could be a lot more desperate then than they are now, leading to the team taking a package of Buddy Hield and Myles Turner for two first-round picks if it is still available.
If a trade does not happen then the Lakers themselves could end up buying Westbrook out. If things are going as they were last season then it will be a no-brainer to buy Westbrook out after the deadline if they cannot find a trade partner for him.
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.
3. Wenyen Gabriel
Wenyen Gabriel joined the Los Angeles Lakers during the 2021-22 season and I would bet that he joins another team at some point during the 2022-23 season. Gabriel is a prime candidate to be packaged alongside Walker in a potential deal or he could just be waived outright to make room for someone else.
Gabriel probably should have been the player that the Lakers included in the Talen Horton-Tucker trade for Patrick Beverley instead of Stanley Johnson. Los Angeles traded one of its only wings on the roster in favor of keeping a frontcourt player who fits oddly in this rotation.
Gabriel was fine last season as a contingency fill-in while Anthony Davis was hurt but with AD healthy and two new centers on the roster his place is a bit questionable. Gabriel is a power forward who cannot space the floor at all. He can play small-ball five, but that is not needed with Thomas Bryant and Damian Jones.
Los Angeles already has a player in-house that would add more to the team than Gabriel does. Cole Swider is a legitimate sharpshooter on a two-way contract and giving him the power forward minutes that Gabriel is getting would be far better for the team.
3 Jazz players on the chopping block the Lakers could sign
The Los Angeles Lakers may not make a trade with the Utah Jazz but they could sign one of these players who are on the chopping block.
Gabriel probably is not going to see many minutes in the rotation as is and his place on the Lakers roster definitely is not set in stone.