The Los Angeles Lakers should not trade for Brandon Ingram.
There is certainly an allure to targeting a big name like Ingram. He can score in bunches, he made an All-Star team, and his name is in trade rumors all of the time. The Lakers certainly don't have an answer at small forward, no matter whether Rui Hachimura can look good for a game or two. Ingram would seem to step right into that spot, and this front office has loved to bring back former Lakers.
Yet the Lakers have their stars figured out; adding another would be exciting, but it isn't what this team most needs. Where they have struggled this season is building out a rotation around their two stars. Last year they had the same problem but LeBron James and Anthony Davis were so good they still carried this roster to the playoffs. This time around, LeBron has taken a step back and Davis has been too inconsistent, and the entire team is struggling.
What the Lakers need to do is find the right upgrades for the rest of the rotation to best maximize their stars. The template might be the Dallas Mavericks, who added strong rotation players in Daniel Gafford and P.J. Washington at the trade deadline last season and rode those changes to the NBA Finals.
If the Lakers want to bring back a former player, Brandon Ingram is not the answer. Let's instead look at three players who just might make more sense.
No. 1: The Lakers should trade for Dennis Schroder
The point guard position for the Lakers this season has been a disaster. D'Angelo Russell has started 10 games at the position, but he has been his usual inconsistent self; an underrate passer, and overrated scorer, and a wildly erratic shooter who brings nothing on the defensive end. There are multiple seasons of evidence that he is not the answer.
Gabe Vincent was signed in the summer of 2023 to share the load, but last season was a lost year due to injury and he hasn't been effective this season. 208 players have logged at least 400 minutes this season, and Vincent's true-shooting percentage of 43.2 percent is dead last, 208th. Austin Reaves has started at point at times, but he is much better when he can play off of another ball-handler.
The Lakers could go the route of just letting LeBron James run the offense, but that doesn't solve the problem of who is defending opposing guards, and it asks a lot of a player about to turn 40 who clearly needs to lessen his burden while on the court. That points to the massive need for a point guard upgrade.
Enter Dennis Schroder, who could return to the Lakers for a third time in his career. The 31-year-old is having an extremely strong season for the pluckier-than-expected Brooklyn Nets, averaging 18.6 points and 6.5 assists per game. He is shooting 38.5 percent from deep, his best season since he played with Chris Paul on the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2019-20.
The Brooklyn Nets are actively shopping their veterans as they look to pivot into an all-out tank, and Schroder specifically has been mentioned as a trade possibility. Schroder makes just $13 million this season on an expiring deal, so matching his salary is very doable for the Lakers if they attach the right draft asset. They should reach out to the Nets and see if there is a deal to be made.
No. 2: The Lakers should trade for Larry Nance Jr.
Another area where the Lakers are struggling is at the backup center position, where injuries and ineffectiveness continue to plague the motley crew of Jaxson Hayes, Christian Wood and Christian Koloko. In their recent overtime thriller against the Atlanta Hawks, two-way center Armel Traore was forced to play four minutes to spell Anthony Davis and the Lakers lost those four minutes by seven points - and they ultimately lost by just two on a Trae Young 3-pointer.
Hayes or Wood would provide a better impact than Traore, but the Lakers need an upgrade overall. Ideally, that player could stretch the floor enough to allow Davis to play a handful of minutes at power forward; such "twin towers" looks would be menacing defensively and make Davis happy during the regular season.
The Lakers don't have to look far from the painful loss in Atlanta to find the answer, either: he was sitting on the opposing bench. Larry Nance Jr. began his career with the Lakers before he was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers, teaming up with LeBron James for his last run to the NBA Finals. Nance has bounced around the league since, playing in Portlant, New Orleans and this season in Atlanta.
Nance is a solid defender, both as a secondary rim protector and a switch defender. On offense he is a reliable 3-point shooter so he is able to space the court for various lineups at both the 4 and the 5. He could thrive for the Lakers beside LeBron James as the backup 5 and potentially even in some minutes alongside Davis.
On an $11.2 million expiring contract and outside of Atlanta's rotation, he seems like an obvious trade candidate, even if the Hawks are playing coy about his availability. The Lakers can explore what it looks like to bring back this versatile big man.
No. 3: The Lakers should trade for Svi Mykhailuk
Admittedly, this is a deep pull. The casual basketball fan may not even know who Svi Mykhailiuk is, and even committed fans may not know that he began his career with the Los Angeles Lakers.
The 27-year old Ukrainian wing Mykhailiuk was drafted by the Lakers with the 47th pick of the 2018 NBA Draft, and he played 39 games with the team as a rookie before the Lakers sent him and a draft pick to the Detroit Pistons for Reggie Bullock. Mykhailiuk has bounced around the league since then, playing for Detroit, Oklahoma City, Toronto, New York, Charlotte and, last season, won a championship with the Boston Celtics. This year he signed with the Utah Jazz and has appeared in six games.
The elite skill that Mykhailiuk brings to the table is shooting volume; he's not necessarily an elite shooter in terms of accuracy, but he is comfortable getting shots up at a high volume. When he is hitting those shots, it can blow open a game. When he is not, he at least is providing spacing for his teammates.
There is not much else that the seven-year vet brings to the table, but rookie Dalton Knecht has shown off how much shooting can help this Lakers team, and they have precious few options other than Knecht. Rui Hachimura is a streaky shooter currently hitting his shots, but otherwise every rotation player with at least 50 attempts is shooting 35.9 percent or worse. Another sharpshooter worked in would do wonders.
The Utah Jazz are not trying to win games, and Mykhailiuk is likely available for a song. Offloading one of their dead-weight contracts like Christian Wood with a second to bring back Mykhailiuk would address a need and not get in the way of other trades.
Whether it's Mykhailiuk, Nance or Schroder, a number of former Lakers players would help them out this season. Will the Lakers bring any of them back in a trade?