Los Angeles Lakers: Trading D’Angelo Russell magically isn’t a mistake

With Magic Johnson stepping down as President of Basketball Operations for the Los Angeles Lakers, many are reflecting on Johnson’s bad moves while in charge.

Magic Johnson lasted just over two calendar years as the President of Basketball Operations for the Los Angeles Lakers before publically re-signing from his position on Tuesday.

Citing his discouragement from not being able to be an ambassador of the league and the fact that he has so much outside of the Lakers that he wants to do, Johnson officially stepped down, leaving Rob Pelinka in command (for now) of the basketball decisions.

This has been bittersweet for Laker fans. On one hand, the team gets rid of an executive that has dropped the ball so far, regardless of how big of a name he is. On the other hand, it just showcases how big of a disaster this franchise currently is.

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It has been fun looking back on Johnson’s mistakes as President, something we even did immediately after the news broke. If you read that article, you would know that the team trading D’Angelo Russell was not on that list.

Let me explain.

With Russell’s emergence as an all-star this year and one of the best closeout players in the league, many Laker fans are quick to point out the trade to the Brooklyn Nets two years ago as a massive mistake for the team.

This is especially worse considering that the Lakers considerably dropped the ball this season and were unable to even come close to a postseason appearance.

First of all, that is the recency bias talking about Russell. He was not great in his first year in Brooklyn and is finally making the steps that any second overall pick should in his second season.

Comparing Russell to Lonzo Ball, who is two years behind Russell in terms of progression, it outright silly. You could make the case that Ball is significantly better all-around than Russell was in his second season and is trending to be a better player by year four.

And that is assuming that Russell would have even been able to progress on this Lakers team considering the players brought in and the moves the front office has made. There is a realistic chance that if he stayed in LA he would not be an all-star.

Even if he was, he is set to be a restricted free agent this summer, which would have undoubtedly complicated things for the Lakers. He is going to get a decent payday after his all-star year and the Nets are going to have to match any offer sheet given to him to keep him in Brooklyn.

The other part of the deal that everyone tends to forget about is the cap space that it freed up. This trade allowed the Lakers to clear up enough cap space to sign LeBron James, which love him or hate him, was the necessary first step to contend for a title.

While it did not work in year one, LeBron still has three years under contract in LA. He is getting older, sure, but he did not show any serious signs of regression this year.

The Lakers also got the 27th overall pick out of the draft, which ended up being Kyle Kuzma, who has been much better than anticipated.

It is easy to look at Russell and be upset but remember that the grass is always greener on the other side.

Having Kyle Kuzma and LeBron James with an open door for Lonzo Ball is a better route to than just having D’Angelo Russell and hoping Russell and Ball meshed. Hindsight always appears to be 20/20 but in a year’s time, it will become apparent that the Los Angeles Lakers did not lose that trade.