NBA: The 6 big winners and losers of the trade deadline

NBA Trade Deadline loser No. 2: Los Angeles Lakers

My Twitter is @aguibanezbaldor. Yell at me if you want. This is not to say that the Los Angeles Lakers are not the defending champions, the title favorites, or major players in the playoffs, they absolutely are all of those things. But it is going to be harder this time.

Regardless of LeBron’s past and last year, the No. 1 seed is important in the West this season. The top five seeds are all heavy hitters and facing two of them before the WCF is surely going to take a toll if you make it there.

Other teams know it, too. The Clippers and Nuggets, AKA the two teams directly above and below the Lakers in the standings, both made moves today to get better. And they have the benefit of their two best players (who also happen to be first-team All-NBA guys) not being out for a considerable amount of time.

Beyond that, though, is the noticeable distaste with the Lakers’ role players. Reports of Marc Gasol, Dennis Schroeder, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Wesley Matthews, and Montrezl Harrell have all being available via trade point to that. The Lakers had better hope that they have the stuff to keep the ship afloat while the stars are out, let alone contributing when they are back. LAL may look back at some of the chances they didn’t pull the trigger on with regret later this season.