The Los Angeles Lakers made their first significant addition months out from the NBA trade deadline, swinging a deal for Dorian Finney-Smith. As NBA rumors swirl with the trade deadline drawing closer, the outlook is looking increasingly bleak for Los Angeles.
Back in December, the Lakers sent D’Angelo Russell, Maxwell Lewis and three future second-round picks to the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for Finney-Smith. It was viewed as a moderate addition to the Lakers rotation, but one that wouldn’t be remotely enough for the club to be a true contender.
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Entering NBA games today, the Lakers would be the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference. Los Angeles is 6-4 in its last 10 games and is the only team in the NBA playoff picture in the West with a negative point differential (-2.3).
There is certainly no shortage of NBA trade candidates for Los Angeles to pursue. Lakers rumors have signaled center is one of the club’s bigger priorities, with Portland Trail Blazers centers Deandre Ayton and Robert Williams II along with Washington Wizards center Jonas Valanciunas linked as Lakers trade candidates. There’s also been past talk about a deal for Chicago Bulls’ All-Star Zach LaVine.
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However, Jovan Buha of The Athletic shared recently on the Buha’s Block podcast that his conversations with those around the NBA and team is that the Lakers front office is trending towards targeting smaller deals at the NBA trade deadline.
“My sense lately, that I’ve been hearing, has been trending more toward them making a smaller move and probably using second-round draft capital and the issue there is that their second-round draft capital isn’t really worth that much because it’s their pick and the Clippers’ pick and both of those picks are projected right now to be between like 45 and 52 depending on where those two teams finish in the standings so those aren’t the sexiest second round picks. You typically want a first half of the second round-type pick.”
Jovan Buha of The Athletic on the Los Angeles Lakers approach to NBA trade deadline
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As Buha notes, one problem stems from the Lakers draft picks. There’s minimal value in second-round picks in the back half of the round, with very few of those players even finding roles in rotations for NBA teams.
While this report certainly doesn’t mean that Los Angeles won’t make any more additions, it seems as of now that none of them would have a significant impact on the team’s championship hopes. Instead, the small moves would just be to provide LeBron James and Anthony Davis with a little more help in the hopes the All-Star duo can carry the Lakers roster again in the NBA Playoffs.
