The Los Angeles Lakers decided to do nothing at all during the trade deadline on Thursday, which was an unusually conservative decision. On paper, that was a reasonable strategy, despite how disappointing it may be to supporters and the hourglass-tweeting LeBron James.
The Lakers had a 27–25 record going into deadline day. They were hardly the fringe players of a real contender, coming in at number 20 on attack and 14 on defense. The Lakers from the previous season didn’t seem like one in February either, but the solutions were rather simple. Get Russell Westbrook off the court and get James and Anthony Davis back on it. A fitter supporting cast and a healthy Laker team cruised through a favorable bracket to the Western Conference Finals.
Although James and Davis have been relatively healthy, the Lakers did not have a significant deal that was about to expire or a clear-cut bad player to take out of the starting lineup. Simply put, they are a club that has played poor basketball and needs significant adjustments to improve. Those adjustments didn’t appear to be available in a trading market where even high-level role players were not moving all that much. The Lakers did not press the matter, therefore. They made the decision to hold off.
What are they waiting for, though? It’s more of a pipe dream than that. Before the deadline, Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report revealed that the Lakers intend to hold off on making a move until the summer. The Stepien Rule limitations, which prevented them from supplying more than one first-round choice in a trade throughout the season, will thereafter become less applicable. Three first-round selections and three first-round swaps will be available for trade by the Lakers. The Lakers will then attempt to acquire a superstar through trade, according to Haynes. One potential possibility has already been mentioned by our own Bill Reiter: Donovan Mitchell.
For the entirety of their existence, the Lakers have essentially used this tactic. The Lakers have essentially gone from superstar to superstar over the previous 60 years, despite sporadic breaks like the five years between Magic Johnson and Shaquille O’Neal or the three years between Kobe Bryant and James. This is the origin of the Lakers’ exceptionality. Why would the Lakers believe that acquiring superstars would be particularly challenging if all they have ever known is superstar acquisitions?
Leave a Reply