Los Angeles Lakers: 5 potential trade packages for Patrick Beverley
By Jason Reed
Fourth potential Patrick Beverley trade for the Los Angeles Lakers:
Things are starting to slide for the Chicago Bulls. The Bulls have long been highlighted as a team that could potentially blow it up as they struggled out of the gate and had internal turmoil with Zach LaVine.
If the Bulls were able to turn the season around then there was no realistic scenario in which they actually would have sold at the deadline. However, that has not been the case as the Bulls have lost three in a row and currently sit with a 19-24 record.
That is not an awful record but even if they turn things around can they realistically expect to compete with the best teams in the East? Since Chicago’s pick is top-four protected this year (going to the Magic otherwise), it makes sense to blow it up now to try and get into that top-four. They are six games above having a bottom-four record in the league.
If Chicago has a fire sale then the Lakers have to at least inquire about Alex Caruso. Determining Caruso’s trade value is tough as he has multiple years left on his deal and is undoubtedly important to playing winning basketball, even if the box score is not great.
Los Angeles could send a 2028 pick swap with the Bulls, giving Chicago a valuable first-round pick that is essentially unprotected if the Lakers are bad. This allows the Lakers to still trade their 2027 and 2029 first-round picks in the future if they need to.
Caruso and LeBron James were the best two-man combination in terms of net rating during the 2019-20 season in the entire league. That is absolutely worth a first-round pick swap for the Lakers.
Goran Dragic is thrown into the deal as a filler to make the salaries work. Los Angeles could instantly wave him.