Los Angeles Lakers: Unfortunately, trading for Chris Paul makes sense

During the Los Angeles Lakers’ search for a second superstar this summer, the team might stumble upon a player that the fans won’t want in Chris Paul.

The agenda for the Los Angeles Lakers ever since Kobe Bryant hung it up for good became simple: try and add as much star power as possible, whether externally or internally, to bring back the glorious days of Laker basketball.

With the Lakers owning a lottery pick in four consecutive drafts, the focus obviously turned to outside star power after the 2017-2018 season. Prior to the summer of 2018, the expectation was that the Lakers would bring in two superstars.

That was not the case but the Lakers did not come out empty-handed as the team signed the face of basketball himself, LeBron James. The front office signed various (and pretty awful) one-year deals to coincide the move to keep the cap space for this summer and now we are at the second superstar crossroad again.

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The good thing for the Lakers is that this free agent class is one of the deepest in recent memory and has the potential to be the wildest in NBA history. The only bad thing is that none of the top stars have that strong of ties to the Lakers, who have been a circus the last year.

Because of that, the team might either be forced to overpay someone that might not be worth the money, like DeMarcus Cousins, or make a trade of some kind. After being eliminated by the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Playoffs, the Houston Rockets have suddenly become an interesting trade target.

With Houston falling short at the hands of the Warriors for the second year in a row, many people think that there is a possible shake-up on the cards, which might include one particular player.

That player is Chris Paul, the second star of the Rockets that was brought in to help James Harden but has underwhelmed. If the Rockets can improve in some way, it would not be shocking to see them trade Paul.

What exactly the Los Angeles Lakers would offer for Paul is unclear. Lonzo Ball is a valuable defensive and facilitating piece that would help the team where they need it. Bring in a third party of some kind to up the ante and the Rockets may in business.

There is a lot of details that would need to be ironed out but there is one thing that we know for certain: unfortunately, this move makes sense for the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Lakers front office is going to be desperate to save face and get a star if none of the marquee free agents want to join the team. With an Anthony Davis trade appearing extremely unlikely, this might force the Lakers hand to make an offer for Paul.

Paul obviously has the connections to LeBron James and is a big name the Lakers can bring in to “give the fans what they want,” albeit 10 years too late.

Paul is still an above average point guard but Lonzo Ball would be much more valuable to this Laker team moving forward. Paul has his injury past and has a bad playoff reputation.

He is over the hill and it makes no sense to commit that much money to a guard that is rundown and has seen his best days, even if that guard will go down as a top-five point guard of all-time.

Next. Point guards to sign if Ball gets traded elsewhere. dark

The logic seems like common sense and you would think that the Los Angeles Lakers would avoid Paul at all costs. However, it is the Lakers we are talking about, and I would not be that surprised if rumors around Paul and the Lakers started to surface this summer.

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