Grade the trade: Lakers flip D'Angelo Russell to Wizards in 3-team pitch

How the Lakers can trade D'Angelo Russell to the Washington Wizards:

What makes the Wizards such a great fit is A) the team is not in contention so it will have no problem taking on salaries for draft capital and B) there are several players on Washington's roster that actually make sense for the Hawks.

If the Hawks really wanted to take a swing they could try their luck at someone like Kyle Kuzma or Jordan Poole but that would probably go worse than the current iteration with Murray. Instead, the Hawks could pick up some solid role players and free up some salary-cap space with the following trade:

There is a lot to digest in this trade, so let's break it down team by team. The Los Angeles Lakers would be trading D'Angelo Russell, Jalen Hood-Schifino, an unprotected first, a pick swap, and two second-round picks to get back Dejounte Murray and Johnny Davis. That is a fair price for someone of Murray's caliber.

Davis is just a throw-in to the trade and the Lakers have to be the team that takes on his multi-year salary. That is part of the cost of getting Murray as the Hawks are not going to want to have to pay Davis, who has done next to nothing in Washington.

Washington has to trade Davis to make the money work as the team is taking on just under $38 million in salary in this trade. For their troubles, they are getting a Lakers pick swap in 2028 that could end up being very valuable with how old the current roster is. In the future, Washington could try and flip D'Lo or Capela for more assets.

Atlanta gets some pieces that can potentially make the team more competitive while also maintaining future flexibility. Jones is on an expiring and Gafford has a very moveable contract if the team needs to get off his $12.4 million salary to open future cap space.

Now that the landscape of the trade has been broken down, let's dive into some grades for each team involved.