The Los Angeles Lakers were one of the winners of the trade deadline, coming away with several rotation players who should be able to help down the stretch of the 2022-23 season.
The Lakers managed to address their outside shooting woes as well as acquire some much-needed frontcourt depth. The best part is all the players Los Angeles acquired are young, an underrated factor when considering all the deals they made.
In fact, Rob Pelinka hinted that the new influx of players could stay on the roster past this season, via Kyle Goon of the Southern California News Group:
“I think it really is an exciting time, I think, for Laker Nation,” Pelinka said. “Just to think about the fact that we have these five young players, 26 and younger, that you can see how even those five guys fit really well around our captains of LeBron and Anthony Davis. So not only does it set us up for hopefully a productive run now … it gives us a core to look at going into next year that is very exciting.”
Pelinka also added that their contracts influenced the front office’s decision to go after them in trades:
“If you really study the contracts of these five players, we very intentionally planned these moves to provide optionality in July,” Pelinka said. “Some of these players have team options or team-controlled years on their contract, which, again, gives us the ability to see how these last 26 regular-season games and how potential postseason games go. And then we can go into this offseason with a higher collection of data points, and sort of a real-time analysis of how the pieces fit and make decisions for the future.”
The Lakers have overhauled their roster every year since the 2020 championship season with veteran minimum players, an unsustainable practice that’s eliminated any continuity. It seems Pelinka and company finally learned their lesson as they’ve got some flexibility with who to keep and who they can part ways with once the offseason begins.
There’s no doubt that L.A. is in a better spot today than it was a few days ago, with Austin Reaves even noting that the energy and vibe is good following the deadline. However, it’s up to this new roster to make the run that fans have been desperately hoping for.
D’Angelo believes he is an alpha that will fit in well with Lakers
The headline of the Lakers’ deadline dealings was D’Angelo Russell who they acquired in their three-team deal that sent Russell Westbrook out. Russell is having his best offensive season and he believes his alpha personality will fit in well with the current group.
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