There is no denying the effectiveness of the Los Angeles Lakers’ personnel led by LeBron James and Anthony Davis. There is still room to improve though and targeting a trade for Derrick Rose from the Detroit Pistons would help.
The 2019-20 season has essentially been a resurgence for Rose’s NBA career. Coming off the bench, he is averaging 18.3 points and 5.9 assists in 25.8 minutes per game through 37 performances. That makes him an attractive trade option for contenders.
With Blake Griffin sidelined for the remainder of the season and Andre Drummond being consistently mentioned in trade rumors, capitalizing on Rose’s value would make lots of sense for the Pistons. That’s where the Lakers should come into the picture.
Here are three reasons why Derrick Rose would be a logical trade target for the Lakers:
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3. A Two-Man Game With the Bench
The Los Angeles Lakers already have probably the best two-man game in the NBA in their starting lineup. However, a duo of Derrick Rose and Kyle Kuzma off the bench would be one of the toughest to stop, too.
There simply isn’t enough scoring firepower in the Lakers’ bench unit in the backcourt positions. None of their personnel are necessarily the type of players that would get the ball to run a high pick-and-roll and be trusted to pull-up, get to the basket, or find the open man.
Having a guard presence like Rose that has multiple dimensions to his playmaking impact would help simplify the game for Kyle Kuzma. The flow of the game would be able to better dictate how Kuzma can score for the Lakers.
For example, there could be direct sequences involving Kuzma as an on-ball screener to create pick-and-pop sequences, something he has done five times this season. The less Kuzma is relied on as a creator, the better the Lakers will be on offense.
