Shams Charania Reveals More Details About Lakers and Nets D'Angelo Russell Trade

The full details of the Lakers trade have been revealed.

Dec 28, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard D'Angelo Russell (1) moves the ball against Sacramento Kings guard Keon Ellis (23) during the second half at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images / Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

The Los Angeles Lakers were in need of a move to shore up depth on the current roster. They knew that the team they came into the season with wasn't good enough to win an NBA Championship. That became clear in the month of December after they hit a slide that saw them lose four out of their first six games to start the month.

One of the biggest needs for the Lakers was to improve defensively. In order for them to contend for a title, they needed to get better on that side of the court, specifically at the wing position. LeBron James isn't the same defender he once was, and Austin Reaves isn't much of a defender.

The Lakers took care of that by trading D'Angelo Russell and Maxwell Lewis for Dorian Finney-Smith and Shake Milton. Both of the players that the Brooklyn Nets sent over are good defenders, and the Lakers got rid of a bad defender at the point guard spot in Russell.

More details about the trade have been revealed by NBA insider Shams Charnia of ESPN.

The Lakers are sending their own second-round picks in 2027, 2030 and 2031 to the Nets, sources said. https://t.co/HVMvSp9N4K

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) December 29, 2024

The Lakers are sending all of their own second-round picks in this trade. With those picks coming from the Lakers so far out in the future, that could make them more valuable to the Nets. There's a chance that the Lakers are bad by that point, so those second-round picks could be higher up in the draft order.

The Nets are a team that is in no man's land, and they want to rebuild. The Big Three era that they had of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden blew up in their face hard. Now, they have to try to rebuild the franchise through the draft instead of signing elite free agents.

For the Lakers, this is likely just the first trade that they make this season. They still have some other needs that they need to address in order for the roster to be considered ready to contend for a title. Another deal likely won't happen until closer to the deadline because they want to see how these new pieces fit with the roster first.

Lakers fans have been clamoring for the team to make a move. While they didn't land a star player in this trade, they certainly made their team better. That's the goal of any trade.

More Lakers news: What's Next For Lakers After Dorian Finney-Smith Trade?