The impetus of having another season in which the Los Angeles Lakers can realistically challenge for the NBA Championship is a strong offseason. Having a strong offseason not only means making smart, savvy moves, but avoiding the bad ones as well.
And while a lot can happen this summer, there are some pretty disastrous decisions the Lakers could conceivably make that would set the franchise back. Hopefully, for the sake of the fanbase, the team can avoid these somewhat predictable mistakes.
3 disastrous mistakes the Lakers must avoid this summer:
3. Lakers must avoid trading their first-round pick in a marginal move
The Lakers technically got their first-round pick back from the New Orleans Pelicans in the 2023 NBA Draft. New Orleans had the right to swap picks with the Lakers but ended up having a worse selection, meaning that they got nothing (this season) from the Anthony Davis trade.
Thus, the Lakers have the 17th pick in the 2023 NBA Draft and can add a talented rotation player with that pick. It isn’t quite a lottery pick but there is a lot of talent to be had in the middle of the first round. Plus, this team has earned the benefit of the doubt that it will not only select the right player, but develop them as well.
So the last thing that Lakers fans should want this team to do is to trade this pick in a marginal trade, as it has done before. All season we heard about how important those future 2027 and 2029 picks were and if the Lakers give this pick away like it is going out of style it would be silly.
After LA won the 2020 championship it shipped off its first-round pick with Danny Green for Dennis Schroder. That ended up being a terrible move. Schroder was not what the Lakers needed during the 2020-21 season and LA could have drafted a really talented player with that pick.
The team could have drafted Jaden McDaniels, who was selected with that pick, or even Desmond Bane, who said himself that he thought there was mutual interest between him and the Lakers.