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Los Angeles Lakers: Three players to target starting Dec. 15

By Jason Reed

LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 20: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope #1 of the Los Angeles Lakers argues a call with referee Jason Phillips #23 during the first quarter of the game between the Houston Rockets and the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center on October 20, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 20: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope #1 of the Los Angeles Lakers argues a call with referee Jason Phillips #23 during the first quarter of the game between the Houston Rockets and the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center on October 20, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) – Los Angeles Lakers
(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) – Los Angeles Lakers /

3. Justin Holiday

The only pieces the Los Angeles Lakers are going to get past Dec. 15 are going to be expiring contracts. The young core is not going to be traded for a midseason upgrade, thus, the team does not have much trade value to offer any other team.

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With that in mind, we round out this article with another expiring contract in Justin Holiday. The best part of this deal? The Lakers would be capitalizing on a rebuilding Chicago Bulls team to get a piece that they otherwise would not get.

Holiday has had a coming out of sorts since joining the Bulls last season. This year, Holiday is averaging 12.4 points, 2.4 assists and 1.8 steals per game.

He adds a better scoring option than KCP and is a defensive addition that would give the Lakers a pretty good starting defensive backcourt alongside Lonzo Ball. Holiday is shooting at a better rate overall and behind the arc and has a similar defensive rating to Caldwell-Pope with a steal more per game.

There is a chance that the Bulls want to lock Holiday down past this season, but if not, he definitely is trade bait for a tanking team. Whether or not this deal happens all depends on the market. If there are a lot of buyers, the Lakers are going to struggle in getting this done.

A straight Holiday for KCP swap would not work because of contracts. However, the Lakers can also take in an expiring contract like Robin Lopez and can send Caldwell-Pope, Michael Beasley and Moritz Wagner in return.

Next. The three-team deal to make for Trevor Ariza. dark

Some people might not want to deal Wagner, but the fact is, he might not ever have a role on this Lakers team. If the door is open to win the title and Holiday helps that then go for it.

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