NBA Trade Rumors: The Los Angeles Lakers will be patient and could wait until the NBA Trade Deadline to make a splash move that would appease LeBron James.
Now that LeBron James has signed a two-year extension with the Los Angeles Lakers, it wouldn’t be surprising if they’d be more inclined to offer more of their future assets to upgrade the roster. And, in fact, LeBron is pushing for the Lakers to do so.
And so far this offseason, the Lakers have been linked to Kyrie Irving and the duo of Buddy Hield and Myles Turner in Indiana, but according to a report, it could be a while before they agree to one of these “splash” deals.
During a hit on ESPN’s NBA Today, Dave McMenamin noted how the Lakers may have to wait until the NBA Trade Deadline to pull off the blockbuster deal that would place them back within the contenders in the Western Conference.
This would make sense on numerous fronts. For one, it wouldn’t be surprising if the Lakers truly wanted to see if the trio of LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Russell Westbrook could make things work with a clean slate this offseason.
And second, the Lakers should wait and see how the trade market develops and evolves between now and the trade deadline. Because, as is the case every year, there are names that are going to arise and emerge as available players that simply aren’t at the moment.
It wouldn’t make much sense for the Lakers to make a rash move that will likely still be on the table for them in a few months, once they know how their team is actually performing.
Ironically, that’s what got stuck in this current situation with Russ. The Lakers made a rash move for Russ, blowing up in their faces. And now they’re trying to figure out the best way to clean up all the mess.
Now that the Lakers appear to be all-in on upgrading the roster, there’s going to be an opportunity for this team to make a splash move. Though, they must figure out which is the right one to make.
This might be Los Angeles’ last chance at surrounding LeBron with a championship roster before he hangs it up.
The Lakers can’t mess this up. It’s prudent that they are patient in their attempt at upgrading the roster this time around.