Despite being 6-1, the Los Angeles Lakers still have clear things that could be improved upon during the 2019-20 NBA season.
One of the biggest rooms for improvement is finding a secondary bench ball handler who can make plays, shoot the three, and play good perimeter defense. Luckily, that perfect player exists in Andre Iguodala.
Iguodala is currently stuck in NBA limbo with the Memphis Grizzlies. The rebuilding Grizzlies have no need for a player like Iguodala, but they refuse to buy him out due to the size of his contract, believing they can get real value for him in a trade. For now, Iguodala has no choice but to sit and wait.
However, if a buyout should eventually come Iguodala’s way, many executives around the league believe he’s already made up his mind as to where he wants to go, according to David Aldridge of The Athletic:
I posed this question to multiple NBA executives Monday and Tuesday morning. Not all of them answered. But of those who did, every single one of them said the Lakers. “Best combination of ring chance and role,” one longtime team boss said. I thought someone would say the Clippers. None did. (Wait; just got one guy who says Clippers, but does so with no particular enthusiasm.) That means nothing, of course; the Clips stayed silent all through the KawhiStakes and wound up getting their man in large part because they kept their mouths shut. Also, there’s always a stealth team out there who sneaks into the mix.
Not only this, but those same executives believe that Iguodala to the Lakers is such a foregone conclusion that it may hurt the Grizzlies in trade discussions:
But the notion that Iggy to the Forum Blue and Gold seems to be so universally held a belief could certainly impact how hard other teams engage the Grizzlies in potential trade talks.
The Lakers at the moment don’t have the means to trade for Iguodala but if other teams are being driven away due to the threat of him not wanting to play for them, then Los Angeles can take their time figuring things out.
In the meantime, the Lakers have the best record in the league and are playing great basketball. The ideal situation is that Iguodala becomes more of a luxury and less of a need.
But no matter what, it would appear league sentiment has Iguodala donning the purple and gold at some point this season.