The Los Angeles Lakers have had one of the worst seasons imaginable thus far. Any time that the team has shown any sort of potential there has been a setback, with the most recent being an Anthony Davis injury that is going to hold him out until mid-January at the earliest.
Fans who desperately want to see better basketball are hoping that the Lakers make some kind of trade this season to improve the team. However, recent reports indicate that the front office might just ride out the rest of the season with this current roster, which no fan wants to hear.
The roster is not very talented so you cannot totally blame the front office for not wanting to trade assets to marginally improve. However, you can blame the front office for what they are reportedly saving their future draft picks for.
According to NBA insider Marc Stein, there are league executives who believe that the Lakers want to keep their most coveted assets to be able to trade them in the case that a disgruntled star — like Bradley Beal — hits the market.
On his 38th birthday ... column on watching Year 20 LeBron James: https://t.co/UqVXoaCiSW
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) December 30, 2022
The only problem is that if it does not happen this year, this is not going to be a realistic path for the Los Angeles Lakers to take.
The Los Angeles Lakers realistically can’t trade for a star after this season.
One of the biggest assets the Lakers have, believe it or not, is Russell Westbrook’s expiring contract. This allows the team to be able to trade for someone like Beal and have the trade work by the league’s rules. With it being an expiring contract, the other team is not taking any long-term value that could hinder them.
While the Lakers are going to free up $47.1 million when Westbrook’s contract expires, they are not going to have that much to spend. In reality, the Lakers are going to have around $30 million to spend in free agency next summer depending on what they do with certain contract options.
Some of that money might instantly go to Austin Reaves and/or Lonnie Walker IV. There is a world in which the Lakers will only have around $15-20 million to spend in free agency next summer.
Why is this important? The team has to be able to send similar money in return for a superstar like Beal, who makes $46.4 million next season. Los Angeles is not going to have the means to make that happen as they would have to trade a large array of contracts to make it work, creaitng the same problem that existed after the Westbrook trade.
LeBron James playing victim on the Lakers is insanely tone-deaf
The Los Angeles Lakers are a bad basketball team and LeBron James is now playing victim when he is a big reason why they are bad in the first place.
If the Lakers were ever going to trade those picks for a star it had to be while Westbrook is under contract. Once that contract is up, so is the team’s chances of trading for a star.