Los Angeles Lakers: Why a trade should not be made until next offseason

With the addition of LeBron James, the Los Angeles Lakers are seemingly establishing a master plan to bring in other stars, which may include a trade.

The offseason plan heading into this summer, at least as it was speculated, was for the Los Angeles Lakers to bring in two superstars in the likes of LeBron James and hometown hero Paul George.

While the Lakers did land James, George opted to re-sign with the Oklahoma City Thunder, giving Los Angeles the best player on the planet with a young core that quite is not ready to dethrone the Golden State Warriors.

Thus, needing to fill out the roster, the Lakers inked several veterans to one-year deals that not only made the team one of the deepest in the league but also kept the roster flexible for next summer in terms of cap space.

All the expiring contracts also further open the door for a trade. Not only can Los Angeles trade for a star with the several expiring contracts the team can also attempt to deal Luol Deng, who is owed $36 million over the next two seasons.

Deng is one of the worst cap hits in the league and has the second-largest cap hit behind LeBron James. Freeing up that salary would swing the door wide open for another max contract.

Thus, multiple possibilities ranging from Jeremy Lin, to our own idea, Anthony Davis, have emerged.

And while those are all fun to speculate and discuss, it may be in the Los Angeles Lakers best interest to hold off on a trade and instead wait for next summer. Here is why that is the case.