How Gabe Vincent's Injury Impacts Lakers' Trade Deadline

This changes LA's trade plans quite a bit.

A highly regarded free agent signing this past summer, Gabe Vincent has only made five appearances in a Los Angeles Lakers uniform this season. 

Even within those five games, he struggled to get cooking on offense, averaging just five points per game on 11% from three-point range. 

An array of different knee ailments has kept him out, and unfortunately, we shouldn't be expecting him back for a bit longer.

Being expected to miss another month definitely hurts his trade value, as given that his name is regularly being brought up in talks, his value goes down tremendously under the pretext that he could miss significant time. 

If he isn't moved, this remains an issue for the Lakers, who still have no backup point guard. And, taking a look at their current asset collection, most trade ideas suggest that it's not feasible to procure a backup point guard unless they deal D'Angelo Russell – who is the current starting point guard – therefore not actually solving the issue.

LA has survived this long without a backup PG, but entering the back-half of the season without one is risky. D'Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves have been particularly healthy thus far, with Russell only missing 4 games while Reaves is yet to sit. 

Without Russell, however, the team is an alarming 0-4, implying that they need him (or at least some point guard) out there. The team's margin for error is incredibly small, and Vincent's injury doesn't help.