In what could be the opportunity the Los Angeles Lakers have been hoping for, Myles Turner appears likely to play out the last year of his contract rather than sign an extension which should move the Pacers to trade him.
The Lakers have long had a strong interest in Myles Turner and news that he will not sign an extension to stay with the Indiana Pacers should immediately rekindle the team’s interest in the 26-year old stretch center. Turner is exactly the player the Lakers need so that new head coach Darvin Ham can replicate the four-out, one-in offense his prior team, the Bucks, utilized with superstars Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kris Middleton.
With Turner leaving, the odds Indiana decides to trade him to avoid losing him for nothing but the Lakers will need to be extremely aggressive if they hope to win any bidding war with the Hornets and teams coveting him. While it may not be enough, the Lakers should go all-in on a mega deal with the Pacers to trade Westbrook, Horton-Tucker, Nunn, and their 2027 and 2029 unprotected first round draft picks for Turner, Brogdon, and Hield.
While teams rarely remove protection from first round picks, this is one of those opportunities where the Lakers need to turn their 2027 and 2029 first round picks into something extremely special, valuable, and tradeable.
Why the Lakers Make the Trade?
The Lakers are facing a ticking clock as LeBron James’ and Anthony Davis’ championship window appears to be closing as James approaches 38-years old and Davis struggles to remain healthy and effective outside the bubble.
This trade is as perfect as a trade could be for the Lakers as it allows them to swap Russell Westbrook and filler for three legitimate starters with needed size, shooting, and defense to complement James and Davis. With Darvin Ham taking over as the head coach, the Lakers are expected to install the four-out, one-in offense used by his former team, the Milwaukee Bucks, to create spacing for Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kris Middleton.
The key to the Bucks four-out offense working is having a stretch five center like Brook Lopez to be one of the four players stationed beyond the 3-point line. Other than in the bubble, Anthony Davis is not a proven stretch five. With Davis injured much of last season, the Lakers found themselves being destroyed by huge negative differentials in rebounding and points in the paint due to lineups that were undersized at almost every single position.
The problem is the Lakers lose their positional size advantage when they play LeBron and AD at the four and five. They need a center like Turner to allow James and Davis to dominate smaller players at the three and four. Starting a lineup of 6′ 5″ Malcolm Brogdon, 6′ 4″ Buddy Hield, 6′ 9″ LeBron James, 6′ 10″ Anthony Davis, and 6′ 11″ Myles Turner would give the Lakers the positional size advantage at all five of the positions on the floor.
Removing protection from two first round picks five and seven years from now when LeBron will be gone and Anthony Davis nearing the end of his career is a huge gamble by the Lakers but their only chance to land Turner.
Why the Pacers Make the Trade?
The Pacers need to decide what they’re doing. Are they going to try to completely rebuild from scratch or try to rebuild around Tyrese Haliburton and Isaiah Jackson and remain a playoff team in the Eastern Conference?
With Turner declining to sign an extension, it seems certain the Pacers are going to be looking to trade Turner as well as Brogdon and Hield, who are already on Indiana’s trading block. Pacers will surely not be short of suitors. The Charlotte Hornets, Brooklyn Nets, and other NBA teams will have significant interest in Turner, who finished among the top two shot blockers in the entire league the past three years and is still only 26-years old.
With the Pacers undergoing a partial rebuild around Haliburton and Jackson, getting two unprotected Lakers first round picks could be attractive to an established and secure general manager like Kevin Pritchard. While the picks are five and seven years away, they’re unprotected for a team that could struggle badly once LeBron retires and Davis ages could make them extremely valuable and tradeable.
Indiana has long been the preferred trading partner for the Lakers, partly because of the players they have who are available in trade and partly because they are a franchise with a very stable front office situation. Unlike many genera managers, Pritchard will likely still be running the Indiana Pacers front office when the Lakers 2027 and 2029 first round picks will be used, although they will likely be traded multiple times.
Indiana not only gets two Lakers’ post LeBron unprotected first round picks that could be extremely valuable but also gets a future young star in Horton-Tucker and saves $65 million on Brogdon’s and Hield’s contracts.
This is just too good a trade for the Lakers to come true but they should pursue it. Only way I see the Pacers being interested is the two unprotected post-LeBron picks. Long shot but possible.
I’d love to see it happen but see better offers from other teams getting in the way. That’s even if the Pacers trade him this summer. Makes a lot more sense, on their end, if they wait until the deadline to see how a team with Tyresse and Myles works. They can move other layers to try and move up. If they do end up trading Turner for picks they’ll likely be for ones this season. You do make a good point about it being fairly likely that Pritchard is the GM a few years from now but it’s not really a weighty point. Pacers aren’t building a team for five years from now, they want to compete right now, next season. Does the Laker trade facilitate that? Not really. It’ll be harder for a team like Indy to get the most out of that much cap space, as well. There aren’t many team-changing free agents for the next couple of seasons and Indy being as it is ain’t a destination franchise will likely have to content itself on overpaying role players. What they want are draft picks now to continue to build a cost-controlled, competitive team and hope they strike lightning. Does that mean the Lakers have no shot? I suppose not, anything could happen, but I can think of 4 or 5 teams that can offer something better in terms of draft assets, a higher yield on a more compartmentalized version of the trade and all without having to eat Westbrook’s salary. I honestly think you have a better shot if you limit to Nunn and THT for Turner plus the picks. Now that is an overpay, but it could be worth it based on the problems Turner could solve if he can stay on the floor. Since he’ll be playing for his next deal he has a lot of motivation but he, like AD, has had a real hard time playing most of a season his whole career. All in all I see an easy coast team like NY or Charlotte winning out simply because they have players that fit just as well as THT or Nunn but with picks that come in sooner.
The other factor that I think works in the Lakers favor for both pursuing Turner and Hartenstein and that’s the continued devaluation of centers by teams, which is aso causing there to be multiple big name centers out there but only a few teams looking to prioritize the center position.
Phoenix not willing to pay Ayton. Utah looking to trade Gobert. None of the teams in the Finals willing to pay big money to a center. While Turner is only making $18M now, he’s looking for a big raise and a bigger role offensively going forward.
How many teams are going to trade valuable chips for a player who will want a huge raise at a position that there seem to be a never ending supply of capable minimum salary centers. Then there’s the foot injury. Turner may be a long shot but it’s not like he’s a rare legit 3&D wing.
Ham wants a stretch five center and that’s not Anthony Davis. Myles Turner solves all three major needs: size, shooting, and defense.
I wouldn’t mind the THT and Nunn and Pick for Myles either. In fact, there probably isn’t a trade with the Pacers that I couldn’t convince myself was good. That’s a team with a lot of very good but no great players, no superstars. Add LeBron and AD to the Pacers roster and they’re champs. Give the Lakers three of their top six players and we could be champs. One positive is they are looking hard at the draft which says they’re really rebuilding. That makes the Lakers offer more viable than if they wanted to win now.