Los Angeles Lakers: Three reasons why a title in year one is possible
By Jason Reed
3. The Los Angeles Lakers are bound to improve at the deadline
When the Los Angeles Lakers missed out on signing Paul George and trading for Kawhi Leonard, the front office opted to sign several veterans to one-year contracts.
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The thinking here is pretty simple: signing one-year deals allowed the team to fill out the roster but also maintained the cap space for next offseason. Plus, it never hurts to bring experience to a roster that is full of young talent.
The one, sometimes undermentioned, thing this also does for the Lakers is allows the team to make midseason moves, as deemed fit, to improve the team. Other teams will be willing to trade rental pieces for a rental piece, a young piece and a second-round pick in return. If the Lakers tried trading JaVale McGee on a two-year deal, it simply would not work.
The best trade candidate out there is Nikola Vucevic, who finds himself on the outside looking in after the Orlando Magic drafted Mohamed Bamba. However, other expiring contracts such as Tyson Chandler, Enes Kanter or even Kemba Walker could all be brought in to help the Lakers.
If the door swings wide open if something goes wrong for the Warriors I would expect a significant move by the Lakers at the deadline.
Either way, I expect some activity as the Lakers’ brass will be making minor moves at least to trade talent that does not quite fit into talent that can mesh better with the current outlook of the team.
Next. Michael Beasley is the odd man out. dark
The Lakers are going to get better, are going to be better than many people expect and history is against the Golden State Warriors. All great signs if you are a Lakers’ fan.