Lakers News: Expert's Pitches For How L.A. Can Build Around Anthony Davis

Could L.A. actually become a contender in a wonky West?

Your Los Angeles Lakers have looked like a different team lately. 

Let's just throw out those two losses in the middle of the week. After all, for all but the first eight minutes of Tuesday's defeat against the Cleveland Cavaliers, L.A. was missing the player whose performance has almost singlehandedly vaulted it back into the potential playoff picture: superstar Anthony Davis, reborn as a two-way center.

Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report writes in a new piece that this revived AD, playing full-time center, fundamentally changes (a) what the Lakers front office should be willing to do in-season to improve the team and (b) what kind of players the club should target. Several potential trade targets that have been floated recently are legitimate fives, whose additions could impede this AD-at-center attack. Chicago Bulls center Nikola Vucevic can really only play center, and Jakob Poeltl may be able to guard power forwards, but he can't play like one on offense. 

To my line of thinking, Myles Turner has played at either spot in the past, so he could potentially be a better fit, as could Hornets power forward PJ Washington. 

Pincus, however, thinks that, should L.A. ultimately move on from the $47.1 million contract of sixth man extraordinaire Russell Westbrook, it should target a high-caliber playmaker along the lines of Brooklyn Nets star Ben Simmons and Chicago Bulls All-NBA small forward DeMar DeRozan, both good passers who, like Westbrook, are not reliable long range shooters. DeRozan is making just 30.3% of his triples this season, though he did connect on a career-best 35.2% of his looks from deep during a somewhat anomalous career-peak 2021-22 season with the Bulls. Simmons can't really shoot from anywhere, can't seem to stay healthy, and crumbles in the postseason. 

The Nets would be delighted to upgrade to Russell Westbrook, this would be a horrible move for L.A. In addition to his ball-handling DeRozan is so good from the midrange and in getting to the free-throw line that he would probably be a good fit alongside James and Davis, despite his shooting issues from deep.

Two other names Pincus mentions that may make more sense in helping spread the floor for Davis and LeBron James are Toronto Raptors All-Star point guard Fred VanVleet and Charlotte Hornets guard Terry Rozier. Though Rozier he hasn't been making many triples this year (29.6% on 8.2 tries), he is generally a good three-point shooter for his career (37.2% on 5.4 attempts), so it may be worth a whirl.

Stunningly, Pincus also pitches two other teams' problems, Miami Heat point guard Kyle Lowry and Minnesota Timberwolves guard D'Angelo Russell (drafted by L.A. with the No. 2 pick in 2015), as possible upgrades over Westbrook -- though both can spread the floor better than Brodie, neither seems likely to ever be an All-Star again.

Pincus thinks the Lakers need to improve on the wing with a better two-way player than their current options, and pitches a whole host of possibilities. Beyond some of the expected names (Bojan Bogdanovic, Buddy Hield, Jae Crowder), a few other intriguing candidates are floated, including two underperforming Knicks (Evan Fournier and Cam Reddish), old friend Kyle Kuzma (I bet they'd like a mulligan on the deal that shipped him out in the first place), old friend Alex Caruso (I bet they'd like to have extended him and not long-gone Talen Horton-Tucker), Nets guard Seth Curry (who doesn't play defense), Sixers guard Matisse Thybulle (who doesn't play offense), and the other Bogdanovic, Bogdan, plus more importantly his Atlanta Hawks teammate John Collins. 

The best return Pincus lists seems pretty pie-in-the-sky: OG Anunoby, Gary Trent Jr., and Chris Boucher. Would Toronto really flip Anunoby and Trent (Boucher is intriguing, yes, but more a supplemental addition) for Westbrook's expiring deal and a mere two first-round draft picks? The team could probably find more picks elsewhere. A Lakers club with a starting five of Dennis Schroder or Austin Reaves (Reaves is a better shooter and defender and could fit better, but Darvin Ham seems to prefer Schroder), Trent, Anunoby, James, and Anthony Davis, with Lonnie Walker IV, Schroder or Reaves, and Boucher off the bench could instantly vault this club into the postseason conversation. The Raptors are 12-11 and remain a pretty solid team, so making big changes may take either an extensive losing streak or a ton of draft equity. If anything, I'd think Toronto president Masai Ujiri may look to package some good role players on reasonable deals in exchange for an All-Star, rather than try to tear the team down. But time will tell.

Assuming that no Toronto deal happens, there isn't a perfect fit among the deals Pincus mentions beyond, well, Kuzma. Crowder is interesting as a cheaper two-way option who can play either at the three or four, though he had something of a down season last year. Collins should be a good defender, though to this point he has not been. Caruso can defend four positions and is a good secondary passer, but barely looks to score.