The Los Angeles Lakers finally made a move before the NBA trade deadline on Monday, trading three second-round picks and Kendrick Nunn to the Washington Wizards for Rui Hachimura. It is not a huge trade but it is still a solid one for the Lakers.
With how this deal is structured, the Lakers can still make additional trades to bolster the roster and should be looking to do just that. Adding Hachimura is fantastic but it is not enough to turn this team into a contender in the wide-open Western Conference.
That being said, there are supplemental moves the team can now make to accomplish just that.
Here are 4 trades the Lakers must make after trading for Rui Hachimura
And to be clear, the Lakers can’t make all four of these trades (which will become obvious as we go). These are four trades that would improve the team and doing just one of them would be great. Some of them can be combined, though.
4. Los Angeles Lakers trade with a rival
As far as fit goes, Jae Crowder would be excellent on the Los Angeles Lakers. He is someone who can hit shots as an off-ball option while providing above-average defense on the wing. Crowder’s three-and-D skillset is textbook next to LeBron James.
That being said, there are some hurdles that make this trade rank fourth instead of higher. First is that Crowder and LeBron have a noted beef that could prevent this from happening. Second is that the Suns may not be willing to help their Pacific Division counterpart.
But if no other team steps up for Crowder then the Suns would be foolish to not take a trade from the Lakers. Los Angeles could try and do this with just Patrick Beverley and a second-round pick but that is not enough.
Instead, the Lakers can offer a promising young scorer in Lonnie Walker (who has actually made the Lakers worse this season, believe it or not) with the second-round pick. Damian Jones is in there to make the money work while also allowing LA to get out of his contract for next season.