What Trade Pieces Can Lakers Add From Active Hornets?
Your Los Angeles Lakers seem to be doing their due diligence with regards to gauging the NBA trade market in these final hours before the 2023-24 season's noon PT deadline.
Unlike some out-of-touch franchises we could name (the Chicago Bulls, anyone?), LA active GM Rob Pelinka's tenure has been marked by change and churn. He is constantly taking big swings with trades and signings as he attempts to essentially recapture the magic of his first season at the solo helm of the Lakers' front office, 2019-20.
That season, Los Angeles won its latest championship thanks to the offensive brilliance of All-Star forward LeBron James, the two-way excellence of Anthony Davis (remember, the Brow could still shoot jumpers back then), and a versatile bunch of savvy, defense-first role players, many of whom could either make threes or score around the rim with ease (and defend it at the other end!) -- the two most efficient shots in basketball.
Pelinka makes an abundance of deals. Not all of them work out (the Russell Westbrook trade and every single 2021 non-Austin Reaves signing, letting Alex Caruso walk as a free agent instead of Talen Horton-Tucker, signing Gabe Vincent).
One possible trade partner that won't be shy is the rebuilding Charlotte Hornets, whose front office as you'll no doubt recall is led by ex-Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak. Even after they shipped Terry Rozier to the Miami Heat, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN suggested the Hornets were far from finished flipping.
And he was right! Charlotte has already traded injury-prone one-time All-Star Gordon Hayward and his bloated $31.5 million expiring deal to a West rival, the Oklahoma City Thunder, for 2021 lottery pick Tre Mann, Vasilije Micic, Davis Bertans, and future draft equity, per Shams Charania of The Athletic.
When healthy, he does still provide plenty of scoring, distributing and rebounding as a big tweener forward.
So which other Hornets, if any, could or should Los Angeles be considering?
The 10-40 Hornets also boast two intriguing veterans worthy of consideration.
Power forward P.J. Washington could help LA shore up its frontcourt, which may be talented but is also somewhat disjointed. Presumably some of those disjointed Lakers pieces could be offloaded in a Washington trade. Swingman Cody Martin has yet to have an explosive playoff run like his twin brother Caleb did for the Miami Heat last year because, well, Cody's only ever been on the Hornets. But maybe a new zip code could help him shake off any bad habits he's accrued while rotting away in Charlotte.
Kyle Lowry, too, might provide a nice veteran 3-and-D presence in limited bench minutes, but it would behoove Los Angeles to wait for Charlotte to buy him out of the rest of his expiring $29.7 million salary, rather than cobble together contracts of younger, better players to trade for him. The former six-time Toronto Raptors All-Star and probable future Hall of Famer is now a ninth or tenth man on a contending roster -- if that (he looked really rough at the end of his Miami Heat run).
