The Los Angeles Lakers are short on avenues for improvement
Outside of their two superstars, the Los Angeles Lakers are barren of desirable assets. The only other players currently on the team that other squads might be interested in are slated for free agency, such as Reaves and Hachimura. Retaining those talents would be a feat in itself; finding a way to use them as trade chips to significantly improve the roster might be impossible.
At best, Los Angeles re-signs the enticing players they can in free agency in hopes of flipping them once they’re eligible to be traded. Paired with the 17th-overall pick this draft and their 2029 first-round pick they’re still able to include in deals, maybe they can use a war chest featuring Reaves, Hachimura, and two first-round picks to somehow build a title contender around LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
The Lakers have proven that they’re hesitant to completely abandon their future assets to go all-in on LeBron’s remaining prime again, though. With so few resources to build post-Lebron already, it’s hard to envision Pelinka and the Lakers selling off their two promising young-ish players and first-round picks again to appease James in the twilight of his prime.
Even if Los Angeles was willing to empty their war chest to assuage LeBron’s waning status as a top-tier star, there’s no guarantee that trading all of their remaining desirable pieces would launch the team into title contention around an aging LeBron and an oft-injured AD. More likely than not, they’d run into a similar situation as when they traded for Russell Westbrook or how the Phoenix Suns ended up after landing Kevin Durant — completely stripped of their depth and coming up short despite their immense top-tier talent.
Perhaps it’s time that the Los Angeles Lakers pivot from their previous endeavors and find a different direction, or, at least, a different way to surround LeBron James with talent.