The Lakers have very little left to trade, which makes the right target even more important this season.
The Los Angeles Lakers won 53 games last season, beat the Houston Rockets in the first round and then got swept by the Oklahoma City Thunder in the second round.
A team that good does not need to tear anything down, but it does need more help around guard Luka Dončić and guard Austin Reaves, and the trade market is the most likely place to find it.
The catch is that the front office does not have much left to offer, so every target has to be judged by its cost as well as its fit.
General manager Rob Pelinka pointed to that need at the team's end-of-season press conference in May.
"I think if you look around the playoffs right now, depth is really important," Pelinka said. "Athleticism and youth... we have a lot of components of that on our roster, but we need to add to it."
A Small Market for a Reason
Bleacher Report's Eric Pincus put together a ranking of the best Lakers trade targets this week, and his first point is a blunt one.
Outside of a 2032 first-round pick swap and three future second-round picks, Pincus wrote that the Lakers are spent.
He also noted the team has 16 standard contracts and has to get down to 15, which is why the front office is already weighing who could be cut.
Pincus added that the Lakers may wait for trade season in mid-December, and the deadline falls on Thursday, Feb. 11.
Randle Tops the List
Forward Julius Randle sits at No. 1, and the history fits because the Lakers drafted him with the seventh pick in 2014.
He averaged 21.1 points and 5.0 assists for the Minnesota Timberwolves last season before landing in Brooklyn in the summer trade that sent guard LaMelo Ball to Minnesota.
Randle makes $33.3 million this season, and Pincus wrote that the Lakers would need to send forward Jake LaRavia, guard Jaden Hardy, guard Dalton Knecht and forward Jarred Vanderbilt to match that salary.
Forward P.J. Washington of the Dallas Mavericks comes in second, though Pincus wrote that the word from league sources is that his four-year, $88.8 million deal is too rich for any real suitor right now.
Forward Derrick Jones Jr. of the Los Angeles Clippers ranks third, and he is in the final year of his deal at $10.5 million after playing next to Dončić during the Mavericks' run to the NBA Finals.
The Best Fit
Jones is the target that makes the most sense.
Randle is the biggest name, but giving up four rotation players for one scorer would cut into the depth Pelinka wants, and Knecht is already seen as a possible odd man out anyway.
Jones brings defense, he already knows how to play with Dončić, and his salary is small enough to add without gutting the bench.
The Lakers are also still picking a starting power forward, according to Heavy, which is exactly the spot a trade like this would fill.
The top of the roster is already strong, as the latest position group rankings show, so the Lakers should chase the piece that fits instead of the biggest headline.
Jones is the name I would call about first.
