LOS ANGELES — The NBA trade deadline approaches with no action taken by the Los Angeles Lakers.
Over the past few weeks, Lakers vice president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka estimates he has fielded hundreds of offers. However, after some “thoughtful and tricky calculations,” Pelinka and the rest of the Lakers decided it made more sense to make a standing putt than make modest improvements to a .500 roster.
“My job is to always look for ways to upgrade the roster,” Pelinka said before the Lakers' 114-106 loss to the Denver Nuggets on Thursday. “But you can't buy a house that's not for sale. … The right moves weren't made.”
The Lakers (27-26) sought an upgrade from the league, even though they had limited options to improve their roster. According to team officials not authorized to speak publicly, most conversations turned to asking about the team's two best assets, including a 2029 first-round pick (the only pick available for trade until this summer). and Austin Reeves. According to those sources, Los Angeles was wary of emptying its asset shelf in hopes of finding a transfer that could elevate him from a contender to a true contender. Such a deal was never found.
“If the right action had been taken at the right price, we would have pulled the trigger,” Pelinka said. “For now, we are not afraid to use future assets. We must leverage future assets in the present moment in the right way and with the right trades.”
Team officials said the Lakers were not close to a deal as of Thursday morning. The closest they ever came to a trade was when they acquired Dejounte Murray from the Atlanta Hawks. The Athletic A few weeks ago, we reported on the contract framework for D'Angelo Russell, Jalen Hood-Schiffino and a 2029 first-round pick. The trade ultimately fell through because the Hawks repeatedly insisted on including Reeves in the deal, according to team and league officials.
Rival teams did not want to trade Russell, Rui Hachimura or Gabe Vincent, team and league sources said. Any deal involving these players would have likely required the Lakers to attach assets, including a first-round pick.
With limited interest in players with multiple years remaining on their contracts, one option the Lakers considered was trading Taurean Prince, who is making $4.5 million at the end of his contract. However, team officials say head coach Darvin Ham was one of the vocal supporters of Prince staying.
The Lakers also decided not to trade any minimum-salary players to avoid the luxury tax, as they did not want to save money at the expense of roster strength. Only $1.2 million was more than the luxury tax.
In conversations with rival teams, there was a sense of some kind of “Lakers tax,” where Los Angeles would be asked to pay role players more money in potential contracts than other suitors. The Lakers were surprised by some of the final prices offered to certain players. Several of the Lakers' top targets — Murray, Toronto's Bruce Brown Jr., Brooklyn's Dorian Finney-Smith, Washington's Tyus Jones, and Chicago's duo of Alex Caruso and Andre Drummond — remain available until the deadline. The fact that he did not make a move is a sign of the demands placed on Los Angeles. It was out of control.
“We tried everything we could, but the market is still the market,” Pelinka said. “There were very few sellers. I don't think many big players moved today on the deadline day. There were a lot of buyers, but as we all know, there were very few sellers in the market and no buyers. When there is a large amount of
Another factor the Lakers now have to deal with is the fallout with LeBron James. Last week's hourglass emoji tweet increased the pressure on the team and front office to turn this season around. James, 39, has a $51.4 million player option for next season, putting his future, and a large part of the Lakers' future, in his hands.
The Lakers have apparently taken little steps from James' actions, whether it be his tweets, subsequent detailed statements, or his public flirtation with the New York Knicks this past weekend, to appease him. Even the upgrades don't seem to be under enough pressure.
“The last conversation I had with him was about him focusing on the players in the locker room and trying to make them the best players and teammates they can be,” Pelinka said.
The Lakers will now turn their attention to the buyout market. Pelinka noted they will be “very aggressive” with the No. 15 roster spot open, and said they have a “group of really good names” that could be signed. Because the Lakers didn't spend the full mid-level exception on Vincent, the Lakers can offer the free agent about $1.5 million pro-rated, while most other teams can pay him about $1 million pro-rated.
Los Angeles is looking for a “ball-handling guard,” and if not, the “best of the best.”
“Obviously, we signed Gabe Vincent and thought he was a great fit, but his health just wasn't there,” Pelinka said. “He played in five games. I think that would be at the top of the list. … That's probably the area we're going to work on the most, because now we have D'Angelo Russell at point guard, but after that… Because we don't have a point guard on the roster.”
The Lakers are interested in Spencer Dinwiddie and Kyle Lowry as backup point guard options, according to team officials. Dinwiddie, who was waived by the Raptors after a deadline-day trade from Brooklyn, is a favorite of the Lakers. Meanwhile, Lowry is expected to be released after Charlotte was unable to re-trade him following a previous trade with the Miami Heat. The Lakers are expected to compete with Dallas for Dinwiddie and Philadelphia for Lowry.
The decision to protect the Pats was somewhat surprising considering the Lakers entered the season aiming for a championship but have hovered around .500 most of the season. Injuries and a grueling schedule have contributed to their mediocrity, but so has their lineup. The Lakers don't have a reliable two-way wing, and they don't have many two-way players in general. They've quietly improved their shooting percentage lately, but they don't have the high-volume shooting players that the best offenses have. Ham has been forced to fluctuate between offensive-heavy and defensive-heavy lineups, and until recently struggled to find the right balance.
Los Angeles didn't necessarily need a complete overhaul like they did at last season's deadline, but addressing one of several needs (a ton of 3-point shooting, perimeter/wing defense, inside defense outside of Davis) could have benefited from adding more players). Dinwiddie does not address any of these issues. Lowry's superior shooting and defense may help, but he's almost 38 years old and coming off a few injury-plagued seasons.
It may not have been a move that turned the Lakers into a championship contender, but it was likely a move that would at least avoid the play-in tournament or give them a better chance to make the playoffs. Nevertheless, they are betting on Cam Reddish, Vincent, and possibly Jared Vanderbilt returning from injury to strengthen the rotation.
After Vanderbilt said that,Pelinka, who injured his right foot, made it clear that season-ending surgery is still a possibility for Vanderbilt.
“Until the injury heals and the player comes back, it's kind of a constant evaluation process of what it takes to get him healthy and back on the court,” Pelinka said. “Let's just say we hope Jared can come back healthy and back on the court without surgery, but you never know. Time will tell. But that's our hope. That’s for sure.”
Team and league officials say there is internal pessimism regarding Vanderbilt's potential return. Before the announcement that he would be reevaluated in three to four weeks, team officials believed he was trending toward the end of the season.
Moving forward, the Lakers will have three picks available this summer: 2031, 2029, and 2024, depending on which pick the New Orleans Pelicans receive as part of the 2019 Anthony Davis trade. (sometime in 2025). Aim for the stars through trade. Donovan Mitchell, Trae Young and Kyrie Irving are the three potential targets, team and league sources said. The Athletic previously reported that the franchise was interested in Young and Irving.
This isn't the first time the Lakers have set their sights on the elusive third star of the James-Davis era.
The Lakers courted Kawhi Leonard in 2019, trying to team up with James and Anthony Davis before he signed with the Los Angeles Clippers. They traded for Russell Westbrook in 2021 after inquiring about Damian Lillard, Bradley Beal, and DeMar DeRozan, respectively. After the Westbrook trade became one of the worst trades in modern NBA history, the Lakers pivoted to pursuing Kyrie Irving in the summer of 2022 and will pursue Kyrie Irving again before the 2023 trade deadline. However, they ultimately stopped short of trading him, as the Brooklyn Nets kept him over the summer. to Dallas before the deadline last season.
This summer could be different, especially if the Lakers intend to package Reaves with three first-round picks. That would at least add to the conversation of available stars. But that plan also requires James to remain in Los Angeles, and he and Davis need to remain as healthy and productive as they have been this season.
Although the potential benefits of this plan are large, it is not without considerable risks.
“We only had one first-round draft pick,” Pelinka said. “And then this summer, in June, at the draft, you're going to have three first-round draft picks to look for deals, but that really unlocks access to potentially even bigger swings. ''And we didn't want to shoot a small bullet now that would only lead to marginal improvements at the expense of creating a potentially larger and more impactful movement in June and July.'' It is. ”
(Photo: Gary A. Vasquez/USA Today)
