While the chances the Los Angeles Lakers would trade their entire superstar big three are slim and none, it’s intriguing to consider what the purple and gold could get for Russell Westbrook, Anthony Davis, and LeBron James.
While there’s little question the Lakers will attempt to trade Westbrook and his $47 million expiring contract this summer, the idea of Los Angeles also trading LeBron James and Anthony Davis would be an extreme makeover. Although it’s been a tough last two seasons, trading a James and Davis duo that dominated every round of the playoffs and won their 17th NBA championship in the bubble less than 18 months ago would be stupid.
While the odds of a Lakers’ total rebuild seem remote, trading James and Davis would have to be motivated on expectation the 37-year old James and injury prone Davis are no longer good enough to win another championship. Hence, the smart move is to trade them while their value is still high enough to bring back not only younger potential stars and role players to enable the Lakers to avoid a complete overhaul and still compete for a title.
While Russ is the sure superstar the Lakers will trade, let’s look at what L.A. could conceivably receive for trading Russell Westbrook, then LeBron James, and finally Anthony Davis in an extreme makeover this summer.
1. Proposed Russell Westbrook Trade
The one superstar the Lakers do have to trade is Westbrook, whose $47 million expiring contract should finally become a valuable trading chip. The key is finding a trade partner looking to reduce long-term commitments.
The Pacers should be one of the Lakers’ possible trading partners as they have two players in Malcolm Brogdon and Buddy Hield whose multi-year contracts they would like to move on from and who’d be Lakers upgrades. The salary dump trade that makes sense for the Lakers and Pacers is Russell Westbrook’s $47.1 million expiring contract for Malcolm Brogdon’s 3-year $67 million contract and Buddy Hield’s 2-year $40 million contract.
What’s great about this trade is it works whether the Lakers plan to trade Anthony Davis and/or LeBron James. If the Lakers do plan to trade either of them, they will need to expand this trade to include Pacers’ Myles Turner. The perfect solution for the Lakers would like to expand the Westbrook for Brogdon and Hield trade to include Horton-Tucker, Nunn, and the Lakers’ unprotected 2027 first round pick in return for Pacers center Myles Turner.
The expanded Westbrook trade would not only give the Lakers an elite stretch five shot-blocking center in Turner to replace Davis but also two high quality starters or backups in Malcolm Brogdon and Buddy Hield.
2. Proposed LeBron James Trade
If the Lakers were able to get the Pacers to trade Turner, Brogdon, and Hield for Russ, THT, Nunn, and the 2027 pick, they might be smart to stop there. Those three new starters are a perfect fit with LeBron James and AD.
A starting lineup of Brogdon, Hield, James, Davis, and Turner would solve the Lakers’ issues with size and give them the versatility to play small with Davis or James at five or go with two-bigs with Turner at five and Davis at four. Here’s where the Lakers’ worries about 37-year old LeBron James’ physical decline and his and Anthony Davis’ tendency to get injured become factors. The question is can LeBron and AD still lead the Lakers to championships?
LeBron at 37-years old is already starting to show signs of physical decline and more frequent and serious injuries. If the Lakers do not believe they can still win a title with LeBron, they should look to trade him and keep AD. Anthony Davis at 28-years old is still a top ten player and trading LeBron back to Cleveland for Sexton, Markkanen, and Okoro would give the Lakers two legitimate NBA starters along with a elite defensive role player.
The key to the James trade for the Lakers is Sexton and two first round draft picks to replenish their trade assets stockpile. The Lakers see Sexton as one of the team’s new young stars to replace LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
3. Proposed Anthony Davis Trade
After trading Westbrook and James, the Lakers have two options. They could stand pat by adding Turner, Sexton, Brogdon, Hield, Markkanen, and Okoro to complement Anthony Davis or take the final step and trade AD.
Trading LeBron James may have made trading Anthony Davis a necessity due to Klutch Sports. Anthony Davis may demand to be traded if LeBron is traded. Trading LeBron and AD would sever the alliance with Klutch Sports. The trade would be Anthony Davis to Boston for Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart, giving the Lakers a second young star in Brown to pair with Sexton as the team’s future star duo to replace LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
While the Lakers lose AD, they receive two proven All-Star 3&D starters in return in Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown. Smart is the lock-down defensive guard and Brown the All-Star defender and elite scorer the Lakers need. Today’s NBA is a guard and wing driven league and, like the Westbrook and James trades, the Davis trade helps the Lakers become a better, deeper, and younger team that should have a decades long championship window.
Trading Anthony Davis would signal the end of the Lakers/Klutch alliance and LeBron’s 4-year stint with the purple and gold. But the trade would also be the piece de resistance of a dramatic Lakers’ extreme makeover.
4. Roster After Trading Superstar Big Three
The above Westbrook, Davis, and James trades would give give the Lakers eight new players: Myles Turner, Malcolm Brogdon, Buddy Hield, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart, Collin Sexton, Lauri Markkanen, and Isaac Okoro.
Five of those eight new players would be projected as starters, including Collin Sexton, Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, Lauri Markkanen, and Myles Turner. Brogdon, Hield, and Okoro would become backups to the starters. The Lakers would also bring back four players from this year’s team: Carmelo Anthony, Austin, Reaves, and Stanley Johnson. That would leave three rosters spots open for free agents and players from the NBA Draft.
The new Lakers roster would be extremely talented and deep at both guard and small forward positions with three All-Star starters in Sexton, Smart, and Brown and three starter quality backups in Brogdon, Hield, and Okoro. While Turner gives the Lakers a shot-blocking stretch five center, they also need to use empty roster spots and even a trade of a valued guard like Hield to upgrade their front court with a power forward like Christian Wood.
There’s no question the Lakers should be able to find trading partners for all three of their superstars should they decide to undergo an extreme makeover. The resulting roster could be good enough to be a contender. However, we’ve all seen how teams constructed on paper often don’t translate on the hardwood. It’s easy to see from above that there are logical stopping points for the Lakers after trading Russ and then LeBron.
The Lakers will try to trade Westbrook and explore what they might be able to get for LeBron James and Anthony Davis. But there are scenarios where the dominos line up and the Lakers trade all three of their superstars.
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Ya’ll have to pay me to watch that team. No possible way a Chip. We are stuck unless we get KAT for AD and nearly anyone for Russ. Ya won’t find many LA peeps that will watch without a Super. Not sure how we go from West and Baylor to Kareem and Maigc to Kobe and Shaq and Pau to LeBron to plain ol?
Sexton (23) and Brown (25) are young guards who will be the core of the Lakers future if they decide to build a championship roster organically.
What you’re missing is the net of two more draft picks and the collection of talented players on tradeable contracts. Trading the big three not only gets you two young studs but also the players and picks to compete when the next legitimate superstar comes on the market. Right now, we have zip trading chips and two superstars on rapid decline.
I’m not saying I would trade LeBron and/or AD but I do think there are pathways where you end up with a pretty damn good collection of talent that could be championship caliber faster and longer than sticking with LeBron and AD.
I feel bad for AD, but he gotta go. : (
I am with you, DJ. It is hard for me to say it, but I truly put the loss of this season on AD’s lack of availability. It is happening in the same way as last season.
After the team treaded water while he was injured for most of the season, he came back and we were leading the Suns 2-1 in the playoffs before he went down again and our season went down in flames.
Trade Russ, LeBron, and Anthony or just Russ?
What do you think?
In the end, I would stop after the Russ trade. I think that team would be pretty damn good. And able to pay super big or super small. Versatile and dangerous.
Hard to predict what you could get for Russ, LeBron, and AD but I might not be willing to trade all three but if the Lakers could get the players in my trades, that would be a great young roster that could win a lot of games and be a contender for a decade.
No way the Pacers will throw Turner into a trade. If one followed the NBA chatter the Pacers were looking to break Sabonis and Turner up. Not trade them both. Turner got hurt and they were able to get Halliburton for Sabonis. Turner is only 25 and creates a nice young core with Halaburtan and Duarte. When Pincus mentioned trading Russ and 2 first rounders for Buddy and Brogdon, Turner was not part of theat conversation. You just threw him in because you like him. The Pacer will not just toss in Turner just because Laker fans would love it.
Maybe, maybe not. They’re still not sure how much of a rebuild they want. They might have traded Myles too had he not gotten injured.
Anyway, THT, Nunn, and the two picks are essentially trading chips to be used to get a new front court. I would go after centers like Turner and Wood and 3&D power forwards like Redding and Grant so we can play small or big.
If Pacers wouldn’t accept what we have for Turner, then I would move on Christian Wood. We need a stretch five center who can protect the rim. And we should end up with two more picks via the LeBron trade.
Aso I never claimed any of the trades proposed were anybody’s ideas other than my own. Nor was I trying to claim credit for anybody’s previously proposed trades. I may have stolen ideas from others but the deals I proposed was all mine. Not sure what the problem is.
All these ideas were just proposed trades to see if what the Lakers might be able to get for Russ, LeBron, and AD. Not predicting any specific trade. Just trying to illustrate a point, which is you could build a pretty good young roster by trading Russ, LeBron, and AD;
No problem, other than the amount of return you think you can get on that trade.
It’s funny, I purposed trades myself in a post. And here is your comment.
“The only problem with that is the same you always have with trades. Not going to happen. I can’t envision a scenario where the Lakers trade LeBron and AD.”
Just thought it’s interesting change of heart.
Aloha, Michael,
That was right after the initial scares that Lakers and Kutch were fighting.
I still don’t think the Lakers will trade LeBron or AD, especially now that the two sides have met and hopefully buried the hatchet.
The purpose of the article was to see what kinds of players they might be able to get in best scenario.
There’s an argument to be made to trade all three and just Russ and LeBron. But only Russ is probably the smartest move right now for the Lakers.
Truth is we don’t know what the next two years of LeBron is going to look like although we’ve had some scary possible previews with the injuries slowing LeBron down. Still think the best and only bet we have for a title the next two years would be to keep LeBron and AD.
They’re not going to trade LBJ unless he back channel demands it. I think that could happen, honestly. Depending on how a Russ trade goes or what they choose to do with Frank in terms of who replaces him. Also, if AD is on the block (which i think is just fan fiction fun right now, not legit) that would also mean that, on some level, LBJ doesn’t believe he can stay on the floor ad help his cause.
When this season finally, mercifully, concludes it will be interesting to see how quickly the Lakers move. If you’re going to fire Rob best to do it prior to the end of the season so your new front office can hit he ground running right away and not burn a month or so getting up to organizational speed.
That fact that Rob still has a job means that he’s likely to stay employed for at least one more season (his last under his current contract) and the Lakers will give him another shot at reaching the highest branch.
I want to guarantee they’ll fire frank but I can also see a world where James and Davis assure Rob and Jeannie Frank wasn’t the problem, that trading away Rondo was a bad idea (it was, no coincidence we got even worse after that) and that they should bring the band back together (hopefully sans Russ but no guarantee from me on that one, either). This would be my personal doomsday scenario.
Realistically I think we just move on from Russ and Frank. AD and LBJ get healthy and we cross our fingers regarding luck one more time.