Two things the Lakers have zero or very little of, currently. Every trade has seen an expiring contract go to the team unloading the better talent in the name of money management and bottom line stewardship. Holiday for Simmons and 2nd rounders? Almost an insult to one of the best POA players in the game. However, Boston won’t just burn money and with next season being one without Tatum (and a disappointing second round exit to boot) costs will be cut.
Don’t bother asking me if a Porzingis reunion is in the offing, it’s not. We have nothing Boston actually wants (expiring money, draft picks). Couple that with how terribly Porzingis and Luka already showed they are as a tandem and it’s a non-starter on several fronts.
The Lakers have almost no tradeable draft picks, no expiring contracts and players that don’t move the needle all that much to offer in trade. Pick swaps aren’t picks. We can trade one of our 2029 and 2030 first-round picks, as well as a 2025 second-round pick. They also have the ability to swap first-round picks in 2026, 2028, 2030, 2031, and 2032.
So spare us the ESPN-Trade-Machine-clickbait-BS, it’s all just posturing and emptiness. The only real tactic the Lakers are going to embrace is trying to open up as many legal spending tools as they can or watch those go away if LBJ picks up his option. Same goes for DFS, if he picks his option up (almost a guaranteed “no”, I’d say except for that there’s not a ton of money out there this summer).
The real questions is what we do if/when DFS walks. Losing Hayes and DFS would be a severe blow to what defense we have going into the season. They are, at a minimum, both long and, in DFS’ case, skilled. With a shortage of moves it would behoove us to at least lock up DFS Depending on what someone like Capella commands this summer a reunion with Hayes isn’t out of the question, either.
🙂
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