Los Angeles Lakers: Possible trade scenarios for each young star

Brandon Ingram potential trade:

This trade has been talked about before and is the most likely of the three to potentially happen in this article. Kawhi Leonard seemingly already has one foot out the door in San Antonio. There is no better place for Leonard to head than his hometown of Los Angeles to sign a max deal with the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Lakers should only make this deal on the promise that Leonard would in fact sign a max contract with LA once he is traded. If that promise is not made, Leonard can leave the Lakers out to dry, leave the team after just one season and the Lakers would be without both Ingram and Leonard.

If the Lakers are in win-now mode, this trade makes perfect sense. Ingram’s career projection has his ceiling where Leonard currently is, an MVP-caliber player. As good as Ingram has been, it is very hard to ever see him being better than Leonard is now.

This trade would turn that promise into reality and accelerate the process for the Lakers. In trading Luol Deng, the Lakers would also have to give up some draft picks to the Spurs (although they won’t be extremely valuable if LA succeeds).

However, the team is also actually opening up salary cap space by performing this trade. Making room for two superstars of a varying combination as well as some bench pieces. Again, if the Lakers are concerned with making the best possible product for the 2018-2019, this is the way to go.