Rob Pelinka needs a big offseason trade to transform the Lakers into a championship team by turning Russell Westbrook’s $47 million expiring contract and a pair of unprotected first round picks into three new starters.
The Lakers need size and athleticism across the board, better perimeter and interior defenders, and more elite shooters who can create their own shots. Specifically, they need three new starters to complement LeBron and AD. Malik Monk, Austin Reaves, Stanley Johnson, and Wenyen Gabriel are fine young Lakers players but none of them is close to being good enough at this point in their careers to be starters on a legitimate NBA championship team.
The Lakers’ problem is they have more holes to fill than trading chips to spend so they need to find a rebuilding team as trading partner who needs to dump rotation-quality players on long-term contracts to create cap space. Those are the teams for whom Russel Westbrook’s gigantic expiring contract and the Lakers’ 2027 and 2029 first round draft picks will have real value. Talen Horton-Tucker’s and Kendrick Nunn’s value is now only as salary filler.
The NBA teams possibly looking to move key rotation players with multiple-year contracts for expiring contracts to free up cap space incudes the Indiana Pacers, Charlotte Hornets, Houston Rockets, and New York Knicks. The NBA players on those four teams whom the Lakers could target include Pacers’ Turner, Hield, and Brogdon; Hornets’ Hayward, Rozier, and Oubre; Rockets Wood, Gordon, and Wall; and Knicks Randle, Walker, and Reddish.
Here’s what Pelinka needs to do position-by-position and player-by-player this summer to build a better starting lineup that can carry the Los Angeles Lakers to their league-leading 18th NBA championship next season.
1. Point Guard — Find Replacement for Russell Westbrook
The Lakers need a starting quality point guard as part of the return in any trade for Russell Westbrook and Malcolm Brogdon is a better fit than Terry Rozier, John Wall, and Kemba Walker, the other available point guards.
The 29-year old, 6′ 5,” 229 lb Brogdon averaged 19.1/5.1/5.9 in 33.5 mpg while shooting 44.8%/31.2%/85.6% compared to 33-year old, 6′ 3,” 200 lb Westbrook’s 18.5/7.4/7.1 in 34.3 mpg while shooting 34.3%/29.8%/66.7%. Brogdon is a major upgrade over Westbrook in every area. He’s a 37.6% career 3-point shooter with a 2.8 career assist/turnover ratio as playmaker vs Westbrook’s 30.0% career 3-point shooting and 2.0 career assist/turnover.
Besides being a better shooter and more efficient playmaker, Malcolm will be an even bigger upgrade over Russ on defense because he won’t blow rotations or take off plays and is 2″ and 29 lbs bigger and 4 years younger. Finally, Brogdon is locked up for three more seasons at $22.5 million per year which allows the Lakers to stabilize their starting point guard position with a proven player who can shoot, pass, and switch everything on defense.
There’s a potential Westbrook trade with the Pacers where the Lakers get Malcolm Brogdon and Buddy Hield. Because the Lakers need a top quality replacement for Westbrook, the Indiana trade should be a top priority.
2. Shooting Guard — Find Volume Shooter Defenses Respect
Landing Buddy Hield as part of the return from a Russell Westbrook trade would be a rare opportunity to get a mulligan and redo the disastrous trade that, with injuries, derailed the Lakers’ championship hopes this season.
The Lakers were on the verge of trading Kyle Kuzma and Montrezl Harrell to the Sacramento Kings for Buddy Hield last summer before they changed their minds at the last minute and opted to trade for Russell Westbrook. Suddenly, with the Pacers interested in a salary dump of Brogdon and Hield in return for Westbrook’s $47 million expiring contract, the Lakers have an opportunity to put together a dramatically bigger and better backcourt.
Buddy Hield is the high volume, high percentage 3-point shooter the Lakers need to stretch defenses to prevent teams from packing the paint and create spacing for LeBron James and Anthony Davis to attack the basket. This season, Buddy Hield averaged 15.6/4.4/2.8 on 35.6 mpg while shooting 44.7%/36.2%/88.6%. Buddy’s a career 39.8% 3-point shooter who has taken more than 8.5 threes per game over the last four NBA seasons.
The Lakers top trading partner priority this summer should be the Indiana Pacers because they have a legitimate starting quality point guard and shooting guard whom they’re willing to trade for Russ’ expiring contract.
3. Small Forward — Find Elite Three-Level Wing Defender
The Lakers’ greatest need this past season was for a legitimate 3&D small forward with the size and power to defend the bigger wing scorers the team faces like Kawhi Leonard, Pau George, Jason Tatum, and Kevin Durant.
We saw how frustrating it was for the Lakers this season trying to have 6′ 4″ Talen Horton-Tucker or 6′ 6″ Stanley Johnson trying to stop bigger wins who take smaller defenders into the paint for easy-to-make midrange jumpers. Bigger 3&D wing defenders are now the most desired addition on every NBA team’s roster. They’re a rare commodity in today’s NBA which is why the Lakers need to move Anthony Davis to small forward beginning this year.
While the injury prone Davis has often complained about having to endure the banging and physicality of playing the five, his dream as an NBA player is to actually to play small forward. Time has come to let AD live his dream. Starting Davis at the three would reduce the wear-and-tear Anthony would have to deal with playing the five full-time and give the Lakers the ultimate wing defender, a 6′ 11,” 250 lb athletic marvel who defend all three levels.
Moving Anthony Davis to starting small forward is part of a rebuilding the front court of the Lakers so they can play a modern version of the small-ball-on-steroids style that dominated the championship in the bubble.
4. Power Forward — Find Bully Ball Stretch Four
The other part of rebuilding the Lakers front court for next season to be more like the small-ball-on-steroids lineups that won the championship is playing aging superstar LeBron James as the starting bully ball stretch four.
The switch of AD to the three and LeBron to the four is not only designed to optimize Davis’ and James’ skillsets but also give the Lakers a dominant size advantage over opponents at every position. Positional size is a to priority. Building a roster with a starting lineup that consists of a 6′ 5″ point guard, a 6′ 4″ shooting guard, a 6′ 10″ small forward, a 6′ 9″ power forward, and a 6′ 11″ center will give the Lakers the flexibility to go super big or super small.
Playing LeBron at the four instead of the three also keeps James at 37-years old from wearing himself out chasing bigger wing scorers around screens and allows him to take advantage of his emerging 3-point shooting prowess. The 6′ 11″ Davis with his unicorn size and length could be more valuable to the Lakers as a 3&D small forward who can shutdown bigger wing scorers than as a small ball center who protects the rim and stretches the floor.
Moving LeBron to the four is playing him where his game can best take advantage of the skillset he’s developed as a 19-year, 37-year old veteran. Today’s LeBron James has become the quintessential bully ball stretch four.
5. Center — Find Rim-Protecting Modern Center
The key to the Lakers supersizing their lineups with 6′ 10,” 250 lb Anthony Davis at the three and 6′ 9,” 250 lb LeBron James at the four is the ability to find a starting center who can protect the rim and stretch the floor.
The player the Lakers need is the Pacers’ Myles Turner, a 26-year old 6′ 11,” 250 lb center who led the league with 2.8 and 3.4 blocked shots per game last two seasons and a 34.9% career 3-point shooting on 4.4 shots per game. The Lakers desperately miss the rim protection, dunks, and rebounds they got during the championship run from traditional low post centers Dwight Howard and JaVale McGee in addition to small ball center Anthony Davis.
Myles Turner not only gives the Lakers better shot blocking than they had during their 2020 championship run but also the benefit of being a stretch five center who can stretch the floor rather than being stuck in the paint. Turner will allow the team to play a modern version of a monster three bigs lineup with three 250 lb front court players or go small with the Lakers’ unique small-ball-on-steroids attack with Anthony Davis at the five.
The Lakers need to expand Hield and Brogdon for Westbrook trade to Hield, Brogdon, and Turner for Westbrook, Horton-Tucker, and the Lakers unprotected post LeBron James 2027 and 2029 first round draft picks.
https://twitter.com/LakerTom/status/1514070347057827841
Predicting trades is almost impossible so the chances the Lakers could trade for Turner, Hield, and Brogdon is remote but it should be something the Lakers shoot for.
While it might be a dream, it was good to see Pincus suggest the Lakers should look to try and get Turner added to the Hield and Brogdon trade. And he had Hield and Brogdon as second most likely to happen. That’s great news for Lakers.
Getting Turner, Hield, and Brogdon for Russ, THT, Nunn, and 2 picks would give us a modern version of the small-ball-on-steroids lineup that won the bubble championship that could play big or small and with enough positional size to switch everything.
Talk about two major Lakers decisions:
New Head Coach
Westbrook Trade
Everything hanging on Rob Pelinka. SMH.
One other thing that just occurred to me with this trade in it’s “dream” state: Westbrook, Nunn and THT are all expiring (THT potentially with his PO) and highly likely to walk after the season. So, really, you’re asking Indy to trade a large part of their core and some of their best players for 2 draft picks that convey 5 years from now. Really hard for me to entertain that notion when framed that way. Yes, they would have EB Rights on Nunn and THT has a player option for year 3 of his deal. All that means is he either declines said option because he killed it on the court or opts in because he was injured or sucked. Westbrook is walking, Nunn is likely walking and the picks are a half decade away. Could they say yes? Sure, they could. Will they? Probably not.
Westbrook, THT, and Nunn are all just trade filler for the two-team salary dump. The trade is being made for financial, not ‘on court’ reasons. We could see players from both sides of the trade then being moved elsewhere. We could see the trade expanded to a multiple-team trade. The key for the Lakers is breaking up Russ’ big contract into multiple players who are either keepers or tradeable for players who are keepers.
While I’m optimistic the Lakers will have multiple offers for Russ, it’s easy to see from the early articles that there are going to be three or four teams who could easily trade for Russ and the parameters of those trades seem to be reasonable. That’s great news for the Lakers because it says a logical trade is likely to emerge so we don’t really have to depend on Rob Pelinka pulling some impossible magic deal out of his hat to save the Lakers.
Aloha Tom, I do believe that the Pacers could be our best bet. Still there are concerns. Like the Hornets Hayward there are reasons the Pacers want to move Brogdon. Specifically health. Hayward has actually played more than Brogdon. In his career Brogdon has played 75, 48, 64, 54, 56, and 36 games. It’s that kind of injury history that makes me wonder if we would be better off going after the Hornets Rozier at the PG slot. As far as Buddy if we are fortunate enough to keep Malik Buddy will come off the bench. Malik is a 3 level scorer, Buddy is not. Malik is creative and can create his own shot, crazy handles and can get to the rim. Buddy can’t. Malik is a much better defender. Malik has crazy athleticism and can get to all those lobs that were tossed his way, Buddy is not. And finally Malik was a much better 3 point shooter this year than Buddy. Buddy would be valuable as a shooter off the bench but he’s not going to play in front of Malik. As for Turner we have already went around and around on him. All will say is if the Pacer can’t sign him to an extension and does go on the trade market, he will be the hottest center name out there. We would likely have to give up 2 firsts for just Buddy and Brogdon.
Aloha, Michael. I agree the Pacers should be our fist option as trading partner although I also like the Hornets. Comes down to which trade can net you three rotation players. For me, it’s still about Myles Turner, who I think makes us unbeatable.
Give me Turner, Brogdon, and Hield over Hayward, Rozier, and Oubre. It’s kind of like choosing between being able to go big or small vs. super small ball. I don’t want AD playing center. I want him at the three and LeBron at the four. I want to supersize the Lakers.
I worry about Brogdon and Hayward’s injury histories but that’s the baggage we’re going to have to accept with the options we have. High ceiling usually has a very low floor too but beggars can’t be choosy. There’s some good players out there who can help us more than Russ. They’re probably overpaid and injury risks but could be major upgrades over this season’s starters.
While I do like Monk and agree he could end up being our starting two, I still worry about his defense. Ideally, we need big guards (6′ 5″ to 6′ 7″) like we had in the bubble. Also, Buddy is a proven veteran volume 3-point shooter while Monk is a young player on a minimum deal. Sorry, but I still like Buddy, He has elite 3-point gravity. LeBron and AD will be playing a lot of 4 on 4.
Bottom line, I want to go big, bigger than AD. While Davis and Turner weigh about the same, Davis has a high center of gravity whereas Turner has a low center of gravity and is much harder to move in the post and a better rim protector against centers like Jokic or Embiid. AD is best as a help shot blocker in the post or a 1-on-1 shot blocker on the perimeter where he can shut players down.
I don’t understand your Prefence for Buddy if defense is your concern. Buddy doesn’t start because he is a defensive liability plus he is only 6’4. Malik is a better defender and he continued to improve as the season went along. 3 point shooting isn’t everything. Buddy is actually overpaid considering the rest of his game. Besides Malik has shot .401 and .391 from 3 the last 2 seasons, that’s good enough for me.
I could be satisfied with a trade for Turner and Brogdon as we have to get a point guard in return and Turner is the player I want to make the Lakers bigger and to enable them to play big or small. He’s the modern version of Dwight and JaVale. Can protect the rim better and shoot the three. Buddy is the least important of the Pacers threesome because of his defense and yes, Monk could work as starting shooting guard.
Hard for to me to see the Pacers hitting the “Full Rebuild” button simply because from the top on down they say they won’t. If that changes then, maybe, all of these deals have a chance. The one thing that makes me hope even a little is how hard Indy was hit by the injury and COVID bug (as were we but even worse) and Russ could have played in all 82. They may value durability and availability more than some franchises this summer.
Carlisle is another factor that I think is overlooked in this article, he’s going to want shooters for his own offensive schemes and has long designed defenses around one, or even two, weaker defenders and won titles that way. So, unless Rick and Buddy don’t see eye-to-eye, I think Indy keeps him until closer to the deadline. Buddy is also a huge issue for a team that already had plenty of defensive problems but that may not matter as much depending on whom the coach ends up being.
The same, unfortunately, goes for Myles Turner. I think they give him the starting job, make him the focal point of the defense and work on funneling correctly with whomever is on the team this summer and try it out. I get they have a rookie (sophomore next season) but Rick is a veteran’s kind of coach first and will try to bring him along. If the front office wants to accelerate that process…maybe they trade Turner. If they see things the way Rick wants (and who knows what that is. Jackson averaged 15 MPG on a team that traded it’s starting 4/5 and had the other one for only half the season. He started 15 out of 36 games played. Not sure that indicates he’s “The Man in the Paint” for them next season.
Myles will be an URFA next season so I think it quite likely that, should Indy struggle again like this season, they move him by the deadline so while a trade for him may not happen this summer one on down the line is certainly a possibility. But trading Turner and going with rookies and young guys alone is the kind of “Full Rebuild” they swear they won’t do. Just sayin’.
Lastly we come to Brogdon. After reading this article:
https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/nba/pacers/2022/04/11/pacers-malcolm-brogdon-future-despite-rough-season-rumors/7280285001/
I’m less than inclined to believe they’ll move him. This is where Russ’s huge deal makes things more difficult. At $22.6 mil we need more from Indy (or some other team) to make a trade for him alone work. You could start to throw in role players (Torrey Craig and TJ McConnell almost get you there, for instance) and then you’re faced with moving from Russ for lesser talent that maybe Indy is more willing to part with and allows them to not go full rebuild.
All in all, Indy could make the most sense. As you say, your version of the trade is a grand slam walk off home run. Those don’t happen a lot and so makes me think the trade version of that is kind of unlikely. But, one thing could make it work is how durable Russ has proven to be and if Rick isn’t into holding onto Buddy or Myles as much as I think he may want to. Carlisle’s a hard guy to gauge at times.
Filed under could but unlikely. My (extended) two-bits.
Thanks for reading and commenting, Jamie. Looking like the Lakers might be able to trade Russ without including a pick to Pacers for Hield and Brogdon or Hornets for Hayward, Oubre, and Plumlee. Neither brings a championship but both leave us with THT, Nunn, and two picks plus new pieces. I think we’re going to be OK as long as Rob doesn’t try something really crazy.
Thing is teams looking to unload salary are used to have to pay to do it. With Russ, they get an opportunity to dump salary without having to give up a pick. In fact, in some deals, they can get a pick. And clear cap space when Russ’ contract expires. We’re going to have at least 3 or 4 reasonable offers for Russell Westbrook imo.