3. Steven Adams
Steven Adams presents a very unique opportunity for the Lakers that would not actually help the team at all this season. Adams is out for the rest of the season and would not be able to put on the purple and gold until the start of the 2024-25 season.
However, once he was able to play he would be a great center to pair next to Anthony Davis next season. Nikola Jokic recently admitted that the toughest matchup he ever faced was the Lakers team with multiple bigs and LA could recreate that next year. Adams is better than both Dwight Howard and JaVale McGee.
So how does Adams make any amount of sense for the Lakers? There is only one way that this works and that is if the two teams decide to trade their two injured assets. Adams for Gabe Vincent straight-up works and the Lakers can throw in someone like Maxwell Lewis with a future second-round pick swap to sweeten the deal for Memphis.
By doing this, the Lakers would get out of the third year of Vincent's deal and would add a big that fits better on the roster next season. This kind of trade has the future in mind and isn't necessarily about the short term.
Of course, the Lakers could combine all of the assets in this article into one package if that is what the team wanted to do. LA could package Vincent, Russell, Hood-Schifino and 2-3 second-round picks for Rose, Kennard and Adams. This kind of trade would check multiple boxes for both teams.