If there are a few things we can say about the Lakers and what figures to ultimately happen once the wave of NBA trade rumors surrounding the team (already) settles into NBA trade realities, one of them appears to be that the kind of wild deadline we saw last year, when L.A. traded away star big man Anthony Davis to Dallas for Luka Doncic, is highly unlikely. The lakers are likely to pick up a player, but blockbuster return packages are not expected.
That doesn’t mean the Lakers won’t be involved in a blockbuster. A lot of the big names that are on the market as NBA trade season just gets started figure to move as part of much larger deals, if only because that’s the best way to mitigate the financial impact of a trade and make it compatible with the rules of the luxury tax and the second apron.
With that in mind, one prominent projection from ESPN does have the Lakers on the receiving end of a major swap again involving Anthony Davis, except this time around, L.A. is a bit player adding a 3-point threat who’s been rumored to be headed to the Lakers for years: shooting guard Buddy Hield.
Lakers Trade Deadline Brings … Buddy Hield?
As part of a massive look at what might yet happen to the diminished ex-Lakers star, one of the packages put together by ESPN analyst Kevin Pelton shaped up like this:
Warriors get: Anthony Davis, Mason Plumlee
Mavericks get: Draymond Green, Jonathan Kuminga, 2026 first-round pick (via Warriors)
Lakers get: Buddy Hield
Hornets get: Maxi Kleber, Dalton Knecht, Cash considerations (via Lakers)
The advantage of that deal from the Warriors’ perspective is obvious, as Davis gives the team a high-risk, high-reward big man to try to put the Jimmy Butler-Stephen Curry pairing over the top in the playoffs. From the Mavericks’ point of view, the deal moves Davis off the books and gives two young assets–Kuminga and the pick–to help in a rebuild.
The Hornets finally get Dalton Knecht, even as his value continues to slide.
Defense Tops Lakers Needs
But the Lakers end of the trade is odd. If it were, say, 2021 or so, trading for Hield might make some sense. While it is true that the Lakers are not a great 3-point shooting team, it’s also true that the issue is a far smaller one for the team than finding defensive help, and Hield at his best–at 33 years old next week, his best is behind him–is a defensive sieve.
Pelton wrote that the Warriors could shave some cash off their books by offloading Hield, adding, “In this case, he goes to the rival Lakers to supply the shooting threat they need.”
Adding Hield to help with 3-point shooting while he is in the midst of a season in which he is shooting 30.5% from the arc would be an odd choice for the Lakers, especially because the Lakers would be on the hook for next year at $9.7 million and the following year at $10 million.
The Lakers will likely be part of a deadline deal in the next two months. But one that nets them Buddy Hield is a longshot, indeed.
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