Nine Players Whom Lakers Should Definitely Pursue At Trade Deadline

The Lakers need a 3&D starting point guard to anchor their perimeter defense, a starting shooting guard to provide high volume, high percentage 3-point shooting, and a backup center to protect the rim when AD rests.

The above photo presents the Lakers three best options for starting point guard (Murray, Smart, Brogdon), starting shooting guard (Bogdanovic, Hield, and Kennard), and backup center (Olynyk, Gafford, and Claxton).
Strategically, the Lakers need to spend whatever draft capital is necessary to pull off blockbuster trades that bring back one of the three candidates for starting point guard, starting shooting guard, and backup center.

With just 4 days until the trade deadline, there will be heavy pressure on Rob Pelinka to somehow, someway replicate the great trade deadline moves from last season that turned the Lakers into a playoff juggernaut.
While last trade deadline only included one first round draft pick, L.A. will have to spend more draft capital this trade deadline, including their 2029 first round pick plus pick swaps for their 2028 and 2030 first round picks.

With their recent impressive wins over the Celtics and Knicks, the Lakers may have turned the corner with LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Austin Reaves playing like they did to make the conference finals last season.
LeBron James has once again used social media to put pressure on the Lakers’ front office to pull off a series of blockbuster trades to upgrade the roster and give the team a chance to go after their 18th NBA championship.

Here are the Lakers’ best options for a starting point guard who’s an elite point-of-attack defender, starting shooting guard who takes and makes volume threes, and a backup center to protect the rim when Davis rests.

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Starting Point Guard

The Lakers’ greatest need is to replace D’Angelo Russell with a legitimate two-way point guard who can create plays for teammates, shoot the three with volume and accuracy, and anchor the team’s point-of-attack defense.

Frankly, there simply aren’t many point guards who meet those criteria. For the Lakers, Dejounte Murray is the premier choice because he has the needed speed and athleticism plus shooting stroke and defense mentality.
While he’s not as good an offensive player as Murray, Marcus Smart is a former DPOY and the best defensive oriented point guard the Lakers could trade for. Smart would be a great second option if L.A. cannot land Murray.

Should the Lakers be unable to work out a trade for Dejounte Murray or Marcus Smart, then their next best point guard option is probably Malcolm Brogdon, who would be a more trustworthy version of D’Angelo Russell.
With just four days remaining before the trade deadline, the Lakers have reportedly made Austin Reaves untouchable unless for a legit superstar and are looking to trade Russell, Vincent, Hachimura, and Hood-Schifino

Trading D’Angelo Russell has become a perplexing challenge for the Lakers in multiple ways. First, DLO has been playing so well that he’s making it difficult to let him go much less to find a replacement that’s an upgrade.
Second, Lakers desperately need to improve their backcourt defense but do not want to sacrifice desperately needed backcourt offense to get better defensively. That’s the conundrum of trying to upgrade D’Angelo Russell.

In the end, Dejounte Murray is the only point guard candidate who will be an upgrade offensively as well as defensively over D’Angelo Russell, which is why he is the player who’s at the top of the Lakers trade board right now.

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Starting Shooting Guard

Next to a new two-way point guard, the Lakers’ greatest need is a starting shooting guard who can take 7 to 9 and make 3 to 4 threes per game to help reduce the team’s current 9-points per game negative 3-point differential.

The Lakers 3-point shooting percentage has actually gotten much better over the last stretch of games. The Lakers as a team are currently shooting 37.0% from deep, which ranks as the league’s 13th best 3-point percentage.
Unfortunately, the Lakers shoot and make so few 3-point shots that they’re outscored by 9-points per game from deep and rank dead last in the NBA in 3-point shots taken and dead last in the NBA in made 3-point shots allowed.

What the Lakers need is a starting shooting guard who takes and makes enough 3-point shots to cut the Lakers negative 9-points per game 3-point differential in half by adding 3 to 4 threes to their 11.3 makes per game.
Bogdan Bogdanovic should be the Lakers’ new starting shooting guard and volume 3-point specialist because he takes and makes the most 3-point shots per game of the three candidates and has rapport with Murray.

Bogdan Bogdanovic is averaging 17.2/3.1/2.7 with 1.3 steals in 28.8 mpg. He ranks 15th in 3PM with 3.1 per game on 8.4 attempts for 37.0%. He’s clearly the perfect backcourt complement to Hawks’ point guard Dejounte Murray.
Buddy Hield is averaging 17.0/3.2/2.6 with 0.6 steals in 25.7 mpg and ranks 32nd in 3PM with 2.6 3PM per game. Luke Kennard is averaging 10.4/3.1/3.0 with 0.4 steals in 24.4 mpg and ranks 30th in 3PM with 2.7 3PM per game.

The Lakers should expand their trade for Hawks’ point guard Dejounte Murray to include Hawk’s shooting guard Bogdan Bogdanovic, which would give the Lakers their first modern championship backcourt of the future.

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Backup Rim Protector

Besides a new starting backcourt, the Los Angeles Lakers other major rotation need was for a second big who could either start next to Anthony Davis in a two-bigs lineup or back him up when he rest on the bench.

The Lakers top candidate to be backup rim protector is Nic Claxton, who averages 12.4/10.5/2.0 with 2.2 blocks and 0.7 steals in 29.6 mpg. 24-year old Claxton is 6′ 11″ and 215 lbs and is a ferocious rebounder and shot blocker.
Claxton’s two competitors are the Wizards’ Daniel Gafford, who averaged 10.7/7.9/1.6 with 2.1 blocks and 1.0 steals in 26.3 mpg and the Jazz’ Kelly Olynyk, who averages 8.1/5.1/4.3 with 0.3 steals and 0.8 blocks in 20.5 mpg.

While Claxton and Gafford are perfect fits as backup rim protector, Olynyk is really a totally different kind of option for backup center, which is a big who can stretch the floor, attack the paint, and make plays for teammates.
The Lakers also have interest in Kris Dunn, a combo guard who could help replace the lost point-of-attack defense L.A. has lost due to Vanderbilt’s injury. A trade for Olynyk and Dunn could be something L.A. might do.

Whom the Lakers chose to be their backup center will likely depend on who can be acquired for the least amount of draft capital. All three centers earn around the MLE. The Lakers would likely take whomever costs less.
It’s even not impossible that the Lakers trade for two centers. I could see a scenario where L.A. traded for Olynyk to start and Claxton to backup.

Bottom line, the Lakers need an upgrade at backup center that is a better rim protector than Jaxson Hayes and Christian Wood or has the versatile offensive game of Kelly Olynyk that could transform the Lakers’ offense.