3 Dream Lakers Trade Targets at the Deadline
By Jovan Alford
2. Zach LaVine
Before the talks of Dejounte Murray to Los Angeles, Lakers fans were dreaming about LaVine donning the purple and gold.
LaVine hasn’t had an easy 2023 season as he’s dealing with multiple injuries and hasn’t played since Jan. 18 against the Toronto Raptors. In that game, the 28-year-old LaVine only had eight points on 3-of-7 shooting from the field and 1-of-3 from three-point range.
Overall, LaVine is scoring 19.5 points per game on 45.2% shooting from the field and 34.9% from beyond the arc. The last time the veteran shooting guard averaged less than 20 points per game in a season was in 2017-18 with the Chicago Bulls (16.7 ppg).
However, if LaVine was healthy and playing like the guy we’ve seen over the last few years, he would be an instant impact player on the Lakers. Los Angeles could put him at the two-guard or the wing spot, where he would be an upgrade over Taurean Prince.
Since LaVine plays shooting guard, the Lakers could hypothetically move Reaves to the starting point guard, giving the team another scorer to pair with LeBron and Davis. LaVine, Reaves, AD, and LeBron would easily score 80-90 combined points.