The Los Angeles Lakers did not add any help at the 2023 trade deadline as the team potentially prepares to make a bigger trade in the offseason. While the Lakers may not have added any help at the deadline, there are more opportunities to improve this season.
With 14 rostered players, the Lakers have the space to make a buyout signing without any moving parts. With this year's buyout market potentially being dense, the Lakers could even cut ties with existing players on the roster to add help.
Los Angeles has not played well this season so the team may need all the help it can get. Buyout signings won't be the difference between winning a title and losing, but they could help the Lakers at least make the playoffs in the first place to have a chance of going on a run.
5 buyout targets the Lakers must consider signing:
Spencer Dinwiddie
Spencer Dinwiddie is the most obvious Lakers buyout target as he was already connected to the team in the trade market. There was some buzz that the Lakers could flip D'Angelo Russell for Dinwiddie but that ultimately did not happen as the Nets swapped Dinwiddie for Dennis Schroder instead.
Dinwiddie was waived by the Raptors and now makes sense as a Lakers target. Los Angeles can get the best of both worlds with Russell and Dinwiddie on the roster, even if both players do have concerning aspects of their game.
At the very least, Dinwiddie would give the Lakers Russell insurance in case he decides not to show up in the playoffs again. In the best-case scenario, Dinwiddie fits in nicely as the bench point guard who can lead the second unit with his scoring.
Danilo Gallinari
Danilo Gallinari was traded well before the trade deadline. Gallinari was sent to the Detroit Pistons in the Marvin Bagley trade that landed the second overall pick in Washington. Detroit was trying to get off of Bagley's contract and took contract fillers in return.
The Pistons were unable to move Gallinari at the deadline and with there being no point of having him on the roster, the team quickly moved to buy him out once a trade was not possible. The veteran wing will now have a chance to sign with a contender instead of playing on two of the worst franchises in the sport.
Gallinari has not had a great season this year and that could be concerning after he missed all of last year with injury. However, at his best, Gallinari is still someone who can space the floor in the frontcourt and give a team more flexibility with their rotations.
Whether he is playing the four next to Anthony Davis or is even playing small-ball center with LeBron James on the court, Gallinari can open new doors for the Lakers. Gallinari, on paper, gives the Lakers the same offensive presence as Christian Wood without the frustrating defense on the other end.
Gallinari is by no means a defensive menace and he isn't someone who the Lakers would want playing 20 minutes a game in a playoff series. But with underwhelming front-court depth, Gallinari can improve the team in the regular season.
Joe Harris
Joe Harris is also a buyout target thanks to the Pistons as Detroit continues making its case for being the worst run team in the entire league. It is hard to understand what the Pistons have been doing as an organization but it is not hard to see how the team came to its decision on Harris.
Harris simply has not been very good for the Pistons this season and there is no reason to keep him around the rest of the year. Detroit should be giving minutes to the younger players on the roster and unfortunately for them, Harris was unable to play well enough to increase his trade value.
That is actually a good thing for the Lakers as it resulted in him being waived instead of there being a market for him at the deadline. Now the Lakers could pick him up for the league minimum and hope to reignite his shooting stroke from beyond the arc.
As bad as it has been in Detroit this season, Harris is still someone with a lifetime three-point percentage above 40% who has led the league in three-point percentage twice. Harris' struggles this season are in a small sample size and with the gravitational pull that LeBron James and Anthony Davis have, he can re-find his 40%+ shooting stroke.
Davis Bertans
Davis Bertans was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder before the season in a salary dump and it genuinely seemed like a good spot for him. The Thunder love underutilized players like Bertans and it wasn't crazy to think that he could actually put up good numbers and get decent playing time.
Then the Thunder decided to be way better way quicker than anyone expected and the team just couldn't justify giving Bertans a healthy share of minutes. The former Wizard has logged just 91 minutes total this season and instead of being a breakout player, he became a pivotal contract to trade for Gordon Hayward.
There is no reason for the Hornets to keep Bertans around so the team might as well save some money and do his agent a favor by buying him out. That would allow Bertans to not just chase a ring like most buyout targets, but go somewhere where he could increase his free-agency value.
The Lakers could be a good place for Bertans to do that as the team has gotten a lot out of distressed assets in the past. Los Angeles needs another big, especially one who can shoot, and Bertans could wind up getting 16-18 minutes a night with a real chance to play an offensive role.
Bertans at his current contract price is awful and that has made him seem terrible in comparison. But at a league minimum guy, there is potential there, especially for a team like the Lakers.
Danuel House
Another player on the list... another player that is a likely buyout target thanks to the Detroit Pistons. The Pistons are becoming the one-stop-shop for buyout targets as they acquired Danuel House from the Philadelphia 76ers in a pure dump that opened a roster spot for the 76ers to pursue other buyout targets.
House is not going to be any team's first buyout option in the market and if the Lakers are prioritizing him over all else then there is something wrong with how the team is being built. However, the Lakers may also not even have a chance at the first tier of buyout targets.
The primary goal for just about every bought out player is to sign with a contender that can feasibly win the championship. If the Lakers get hot they can certainly go on a run but they are in the upper class of title contenders this season.
Thus, the Lakers may have to sign their fifth option and it would be someone like House. House's numbers are underwhelming and the hope would be that he could find something in LA that has been missing the last few years.
If nothing else, House at least has ample playoff experience. The wing has made the playoffs four times in his career and has logged 29 career playoff games. That isn't nothing, and might be more comfortable for the Lakers if they have to turn to the very back of the rotation because of injuries.