While we discussed the Top 4 Moves Lakers Could Realistically Pull Off to Repeat as NBA Champions in our last article, we can’t ignore the possibility the Lakers will be able to pull off a blockbuster trade for a third superstar.
While pundits constantly remind us the Lakers gave up most of their trading chips in their mega deal for Anthony Davis, winning a championship may have elevated the value of several of the remaining players on their roster. Championship resumes for young players like Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Alex Caruso, and Talen Horton-Tucker and expiring contracts of proven vets like Danny Green, Avery Bradley, or JaVale McGee may be worth more.
The economic landscape in the NBA has also changed dramatically due to the coronavirus pandemic, with the shortened 2021 season being sacrificed as teams and players make moves hoping to setup a normal 2022 season. Suddenly, there are rumors of big name players like Jrue Holiday, Chris Paul, Gordon Hayward, Victor Oladipo, Bradley Beal, Devin Booker, James Harden, and Giannis Antetokounmpo possibly being on the move.
With that in mind, here are the top four moves, with the help of the basketball gods, savvy negotiations, and competitors focusing elsewhere, the Lakers just might magically pull off to repeat as NBA champions:
1. Trade for Jrue Holiday
The top magical move the Lakers could make to improve their chances of repeating as NBA champions would be to trade with the New Orleans Pelicans for 30-year old, 6′ 3,” 205 lb All-Star point guard Jrue Holiday.
Since Holiday will make $26.2 million next season, the Lakers will have to send out $20.1 million in salaries for the trade to be legal. The problem for the Lakers will not be matching salaries but making a good enough offer. Holiday will be one of the top trade targets on the market and the competition for him will be intense so the Lakers need to put together their best offer to have any chance at landing the Pelicans’ elite point guard.
The competitors may include the Brooklyn Nets who may offer Caris LeVert, the Golden State Warriors who may offer Andrew Wiggins and the 2nd pick in the 2020 draft, and the Boston Celtics who may offer Gordon Hayward. But there are so many elite players on the market the Lakers could get lucky as there’s a good chance the short offseason NBA free agency period could turn into a form of musical chairs where Jrue Holiday falls to the Lakers.
Since Holiday would be a perfect fit alongside LeBron and AD, the Lakers should go all in with an offer that includes Kyle Kuzma, Alex Caruso, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope ($15M S&T), and their 2020 first round pick. That would give the Lakers a third superstar to go with LeBron and AD and the ability to bring back Rondo, Morris, and Howard to go with Green, Bradley, Horton-Tucker, McGee, and whomever they sign with their MLE.
Holiday would give the Lakers the third superstar, reliable third scorer, and elite second playmaker to defend their championship as well as a two time All-Defensive player with solid experience playing with AD and Rondo.
2. Trade for Myles Turner
While trading for Holiday would transform the Lakers, pulling off a mega trade for 24-year old, 6′ 11,” 250 lb Indiana Pacers’ center Myles Turner could have just as great an impact on the Lakers’ championship window.
Like Holiday, Turner has attracted great interest and will be one of the most sought after trade targets this offseason as the Pacers look to retool their front court around players who better fit with rising star Domantas Sabonis. The Lakers’ major trade competition for Myles Turner will be many of the same teams and same offers they would need to beat to acquire Jrue Holiday: the Brooklyn Nets, Golden State Warriors, and Boston Celtics.
Because Turner is only making $18.0 million, the Lakers only have to offer $14.4 million for the trade to work. Like Holiday, however, the Lakers will need to make an offer that’s tempting enough to beat other teams’ offers. The Lakers need to go all-in if they expect the Pacers to trade Turner to them, making an offer similar to their offer for Holiday of Kyle Kuzma, Alex Caruso, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope ($15M S&T), and their first round pick.
While Jrue Holiday qualifies a true third superstar, Myles Turner does not. What he would bring to the Lakers starting lineup though could be just as impactful as he’s the ideal modern center to play alongside Anthony Davis. Turner allows Davis to play his preferred power forward position and has the skills as a center to transform the Lakers into a juggernaut at both ends with his elite 3-point shooting, rim protection, and perimeter defense.
The best analogy why the Lakers should trade for Myles Turner is he’s a mini clone of Anthony Davis and would enable the Lakers to play their version of ‘small ball’ for the entire game rather than just half of the game.
3. Trade for Victor Oladipo
Because of risks due to his subpar play coming back from a quad injury, trading for 28-year old, 6′ 4,” 213 lb guard Victor Oladipo isn’t the slam dunk trading for either Jrue Holiday or Myles Turner would be.
But the payoff could be just as great if Victor recovers 100% to become the budding superstar he was two years ago when he was ranked one of the best shooting guards in league, making the All-NBA and All-Defensive teams. While Victor’s trade value is low right now because of concerns about his injury and the ability to re-sign him, there will still be competing teams looking to trade for him, including the Miami Heat and Milwaukee Bucks.
Since Victor makes $21.0 million, the Lakers need to include $16.8 million in salaries to make the trade work. The Lakers should offer the Pacers Kyle Kuzma, Danny Green, and their 2020 first round pick for Victor Oladipo. Considering there’s some risk due to the injury and his free agency status, the Lakers’ offer should be enough to convince the Pacers to accept the offer. From the Lakers’ perspective, there’s little risk of Victor not re-signing.
One of the most appealing aspects of trading for Victor is his potential as a legitimate third superstar who’s young enough to help LeBron James and Anthony Davis win now and then to co-star with AD once LeBron retires. Because the Lakers would receive Oladipo’s Bird rights in the trade, they would then be allowed to go over the cap to re-sign him to a max contract, which is the only sure way to add a third max player to their roster.
While trading for Oladipo is riskier than trading for Holiday or Turner, the upside is greater since he has the potential to be a genuine third superstar whereas Jrue and Myles were just perfect catalysts for LeBron and AD.
4. Trade for Christian Wood
With Anthony Davis committing to re-signing with the Los Angeles Lakers, Christian Wood becomes the preeminent free agent big man this offseason, which means there’s a good chance there will be a bidding war to land him.
While some free agent pundits established Wood’s market value around $10 million per year, other analysts have suggested he could command as much as $15 to $17 million per year based on his breakout 2020 year with the Pistons. The maximum contract the Lakers should offer Christian Wood is a three-year $48 million deal starting at $16 million per year. Combined with a chance to win a championship, that should be an offer he just can’t refuse.
Assuming the Lakers can come to an agreement with Christian Wood on a contract, all that remains is working out an acceptable sign-and-trade deal the Detroit Pistons will accept as equitable compensation for trading him. The obvious centerpiece to the sign-and-trade deal is Lakers forward and Flint, Michigan native Kyle Kuzma, about whom the Lakers and Pistons had already had trade discussions before the trade deadline last winter.
A sign-and-trade between the Detroit Pistons and the Los Angeles Lakers of Christian Wood in return for a package of Kyle Kuzma, Danny Green, and JaVale McGee should be enough compensation to facilitate the deal. The Lakers get a player who could transform their team and clear cap space to give raises to AD, KCP, and Rondo and use their MLE and BAE to further upgrade their roster despite being limited by the $138.9 million hard cap.
Pairing 6′ 10″ Christian Wood and his 7′ 3″ wingspan with 6′ 10″ Anthony Davis and his 7′ 6″ wingspan would give the Lakers unprecedented size and length and a monster front court that would be a nightmare matchup.
Great article LT! I feel like these are all pretty balanced proposals. The only one I had a question on was the one for Wood. Feels like we’re sending out more salary than necessary since you have Wood theoretically signing for $16ish mil and we’re sending out over $26 million. I believe Detroit would need to add another player to make the money work. Might as well try to keep Cook and his partially guaranteed deal to provide our own team with some cap flexibility, should it come down to getting under the apron for some reason or another.
I’ll rank them in t4rms of my personal level of excitement:
#4: Trade for Wood. I think we both agree that while being the least proven of all the players listed Wood will likely be the cheapest to acquire and fills a solid need both now and on down the line. Picking up a player that can be counted on in any game to fill the 5 spot and space the floor is essential to keeping AD fresh for the playoffs for those series where he plays a lot at the five.
#2 Trading for Myles Turner. For the same reasons listed above but throw in a more proven track record of being able to play at a high level. Indeed this does feel like we would need a KCP S&T to make it happen. Despite the fact that Myles kind of fell out of thde xpotlight he’s still an amazing player under contract and there’s a new coach riding into town who may want to see how everything present fits together. I think the allure of a replacement for Oladipo would be enough, though. Adding a solid guard to soothe any Victor issues that may emerge.
#3 Which leads us right into trading for Oladipo. There’s a world where I see us doing both, actually. It’s a tiny world, not much light there, far from any neraby star to provide it with much light or energy, but it’s there. If you use KCP and Kuzma to S&T for Turner that gives you the ability to use Green, Cook and THT to trade for Oladipo. While I don’t like trading away all of our young, cost efficient talent you’re getting back to potemtial cornerstones of the franchise. As you say, should Victor be able to recapture his glory from two seasons ago a la Paul George you’ve landed a bargain. There, is however, a darker potentiallity and that is that Victor becomes more like Gordon Hayward or Isiaih Thomas, shells of their former All Star selves.
#4 This one feels out of reach even though of the 4 Holiday is probably the best fit on the Lakers. There are a lot of reasons I don’t like this, #1 is I don’t see any reason to trade Caruso at this time. But in addition I think we end up giving away a lot of what made us so deadly in the NBA playoffs and all we get back is one guy. Sending out that much talent is risky in that there aren’t any clear cut internal favorites to reprise their roles, and you will need somebody to do that, specifically because Jrue has had a decent history of getting knick-knacky injuries that keep him out for stretches at a time. That becomes a big double-down with the quick start, short training time (not training camp but the time to work out). Having said that, he fits in perfectly at the 2 or 1 alongside James and Ad, likely Rondo would start in that scenario. Further middying the water on this one is that neither NOLA nor Jrue has shown the slightest indication of wanting to move the player or the player wanting to move to another team. Unlike many I do not see the AD trade as complicating this one, it’s a business and if we put out the better offer Griffin is a pro and will take it. They will not turn down talent to snub the Lakers like before, especially if Jrue keeps any potential trade demand out of the media, should he ever make one.
All in all good stuff though dude, keep ’em coming!
Weird. I edited the comment but the edits all vanished…bummer.
It was a long comment so I’ll reprise it in a nutshell:
#4 – Wood, as listed above.
#3 – Turner, more expensive to acquire but more proven than Wood.
#2 – Trade for Oladipo. Mentioned we could actually land both Turner and Oladipo if we get uber-creative. Personally I have big time concerns for trading that much for a player as injured as he’s looked. The cautionary tales of Isaiah Thomas and Gordon Hayward ought to be at least remembered.
#4 – Trade for Jrue. Feels out of reach and it’s a lot of talent to ship out for one player. Our strength was being able to change looks and when you reduce the cast and focus so much on star talent I worry that we erode the ability Frank had to deploy so many different styles of play, on both ends. Don’t see the AD trade as a hindrance, Griffin is a pro and if we have the best offer he won’t snub us. Obviosuly he’s the best superstar fit for AD and LBJ.
There was a lot more but it’s evidently lost in the mists of time. C’est la vie. GOod one, keep ’em coming LT.
Thanks, Jamie,
I had to leave early this morning to go to California City, CA on a consulting gig so I cobbled together the Christian Wood section of the article from previous articles and obviously screwed up the trade. I’ll fix the article later. Thanks for the alert.
The key to trading for Wood is selling him on the contract amount and the benefit of getting paid that amount to play for the Lakers. Once you sell Christian on the deal (3 years at $16 million per year for $48 million total), then you have leverage over the Pistons, although we’ll have to give them more than just Danny Green’s $15 million contract. That something is Kyle Kuzma, who’s a Detroit metro native having grown up in Flynt, MI.
So you’re right Wood would cost less than the other four both from a standpoint of trade assets and salary paid out. The S&T would limit what we could pay to keep KCP and Rondo but it would still be workable although we might run out of enough cap space under the $139 apron to use the full MLE. I might include McGee just to get more room under the apron to re-sign Morris and Howard.
Christian is not the proven player or defender as Turner but I think his potential offensively is way higher than Myles. Wood is a tiger attacking the rim and may have greater gravity from deep. And, like you pointed out, he is the cheapest option. And maybe the easiest to sign since we only have to get him to agree and then the Pistons have little choice.
The other thing that impresses me is Wood’s athleticism. He has some great hops and although needs to bulk to play the five all the time, can stay with guards attacking the rim and block their shots ala AD. He’s probably a reach for the veteran oriented Lakers but we can hope.
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LOL. Sorry about the lost comment. I’m writing this in Word because I’ve had the same thing happen to me. It’s the Youzer/Buddy Press plugin and I’ve notified them of the problem so hopefully it will fixed in the future. For now, this is my workaround with long responses.
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I also love Turner as he’s proven and bigger body than Wood but harder to land and would cost more in assets. But I would take him in a snap. The other option that I really like if the price is right is Obaka. Great defender and 3-point shooter.
I know most think we need a point guard but I think getting a 5 who can do what AD can do would have even more impact. Two pterodactyls protecting the rim would be like putting a lid over the basket or like that smaller rim coaches put on the rim to make it harder to shoot and give teams more rebounds to fight for. That’s why Wood and Turner would be great.
I do like Dipo and would gamble is we can’t land Wood or Turner. And I do agree there will be more competition for Holiday than any of the others. What made angry about Gerald taking about my post is that he misconstrued or misunderstood what I was saying, which was the Lakers should be at the top of the list of competitors going after Holiday because of his fit and experience with AD and Rondo.
Of course, Obaka for the taxpayer $5.6M MLE would also be a great option as a center next to AD.
Definitely Agree;
#4 – I would love to see this happen. He is a bargain version of AD. If he can provide the same way as he did last season, he is going to be very valuable to the team.
#3 – As Jaime stated, a much proven version but a bit more expensive. Which is why it is necessary to really try to do #4 first before this move.
#2 – The only way i would go this route if we can acquire both #3 and #2 with the reason if they can be their selves 2 seasons ago, then it would be hard for other teams to beat us.
#1 – This is the dream scenario but far fetch. Only to happen is David Griffin eats something that will make his eyes twinkle on every player the Lakers have. LOL
How about DRose, i have not seen him in the list anymore.
I’d offer Kuzma, McGee and Green for Rose and a S&T for Wood, kind of doubt that Detroit does that, they’ll want picks we don’t have in the lottery range. They are going full rebuild but will be hampered by one of the more untradeable contracts in the NBA: one Blake Griffin who has a PO for 2021-22 for $38.9 mil which, barring 2 years of All Star level play that takes them deep into the playoffs, he won’t be seeing a better deal out there so unless he reeeeeeeally hates Detroit and money he’ll opt into. You could try to sell them on McGee is a solid backup for Griffin and the center they can use in spot duty, Green is the money we S&T Wood and Rose for and Kuzma is the future star that can play with McGee, and Griffin on the floor giving them a decent front court to build around and insures that, should Thon Maker leave, they have a center to allow Blake to play at the 4.
Leaves us a lot of our guards so if one feels strongly about holding onto McGee you could swamp Avery Bradley in but that would either mean we’re on the verge of over-paying for the potential of Wood taking on some of Detroit’s flotsam. If it’s me I keep Bradley, there aren’t a lot of solid 2-way players at the price he plays for and we can hold onto that very tradeable contract until closer to the deadline and have the ability to better address what mid-season needs we have.
Detroit could pick up Svi’s option and send him over if it was Bradley, I think that would come very close t covering the needed salary matching parameters.
Despite injury history, I’d much rather have Luke Kennard than Rose. Better skillset.
Kennard for sure over Rose, Sean.