NBA Rumors: Should the Los Angeles Lakers be saving their core assets in an attempt to land Anthony Davis during the summer?
The Los Angeles Lakers failed to land Trevor Ariza, at least in part, because they didn’t want to give up one of their blue chip assets.
Which is understandable on the surface because Ariza would pretty much be a rental. He’s on a one-year contract, and the Lakers probably wouldn’t want to re-sign him to the big money contract he could likely get on the open market, especially if they have eyes on landing one of the big-name free agents during the summer.
But, according to a report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, another reason why the Lakers elected to keep their blue chip assets is due to their upcoming chase of Anthony Davis. According to the report, the Lakers have big plans for the summer and they surround around pursuing Davis.
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"“Here’s the line [the Lakers] have to walk: they’re not going to give away picks and their top young players in some deal that makes them incrementally better this season because they have to save all those assets for Anthony Davis, a big trade this summer either pre or post free agency…“The absolute dream scenario, people talk about (how) they can trade for Anthony Davis or sign a free agent. The dream scenario is they do both.”"
This isn’t surprising by any means, and is actually a smart move by the Lakers. Adding Ariza would no question make this team better, but it doesn’t make them better – or even competitive – against a team like the Golden State Warriors.
And at the end of the day, the endgame for a team like the Lakers is beating the Warriors. And if that can’t be accomplished by one move at the moment, it doesn’t really make much sense for this team to burn one of its assets – especially if one of those same assets could help them land the player that could help them beat the Warriors in the future.
Expect the Lakers to continue to monitor the trade landscape over the next few weeks and months, but don’t expect them to trade one of their core pieces unless it is for a player like Anthony Davis.