Los Angeles Lakers can retool with unexpected trade with Portland Trail Blazers
By Andy Quach
The Los Angeles Lakers may need to pivot this offseason.
The Los Angeles Lakers have been a strange case study in team building ever since they added the services of LeBron James. Since signing ‘The King’ in free agency in 2018, general manager Rob Pelinka has been under a mode of operation truly unique to his franchise.
With James on board, LA was never far off from a roster worthy of title contention. But with LeBron’s penchant for controlling his own destiny, the repeatedly short-term contracts he signed with them meant that the Lakers had to constantly retool around him while also ensuring that they had a relatively intact plan for life after his reign in LA.
That tightrope that Pelinka and the Lakers’ brass were navigating came to a head this past summer when Los Angeles was finally able to package two future first-round picks in 2027 and 2029 to try to turn last year’s 33-49, 11th-seeded roster into one that could return to title contention.
Against all odds, Pelinka worked his magic ahead of this past season’s trade deadline, spinning the straw they had into gold, or, at least, role players that complimented LeBron and Anthony Davis’s games enough to get them into the Western Conference Finals.
How the Los Angeles Lakers got here
Just as a recap, here’s what Pelinka sent out before the trade deadline and the return he received from those trades.
Out:
- Russell Westbrook
- Kendrick Nunn
- Juan Toscano-Anderson
- Damian Jones
- Patrick Beverly
- Thomas Bryant
- 2027 top-four protected first-round pick
- Two future second-round picks
In:
- Rui Hachimura
- D’Angelo Russell
- Mo Bamba
- Malik Beasley
- Jarred Vanderbilt
- Davon Reed
- Second-round picks in 2024 and 2025 via the Los Angeles Clippers
While the Lakers had to abandon their plans to add a third star to their duo, like they tried to do with Russell Westbrook, there’s no denying that the supporting cast they brought in was much better suited for their current roster and system than the pieces they sent out.
Of the eight players consistently in their playoff rotation, three of them were acquired by the Los Angeles Lakers before the trade deadline: Hachimura, Russell, and Vanderbilt. While revamping the supporting cast enabled the Lakers to go on an 18-9 run to finish the regular season, earning the seventh-seed in the Western Conference, and battle their way into the Conference Finals, they’re now staring at an 0-3 hole that has never before been overcome.
Where they go from here is a much more difficult conversation.