Entering the year as one of the favorites to win the 2022 NBA Finals, the Los Angeles Lakers have really struggled and are just 16-13 to this point in the season. This is not terrible compared to some other teams in the league, but for a team with LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Russell Westbrook and other former All-Stars, they have really underachieved so far.
The Lakers do not look like a team that can contend for a championship right now and that is because they do not have the right personnel on their roster around James, Westbrook and Davis. Carmelo Anthony has played well, as has young wing Talen Horton-Tucker, but there are very few three-point shooting threats on this team and they do not have reliable defenders on the perimeter.
One of the key questions about this team coming into the season revolved around how their age would impact their defensive effort and the answer is that their age and durability is negatively impacting this team’s defensive effort.
At times, guys just look lost on the floor and with Anthony Davis not looking like the Top-5 player in the league that he should be, this team has had its fair share of struggles defensively.
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Davis will eventually figure things out and snap the slump he has been in, but adding some “3-and-D” talents on the wing could go a long way in this team becoming a real playoff threat again.
They do not have much cap space to make a significant move like going after someone like Jerami Grant, but the Lakers could go after someone like Justin Holiday at a small price.
Now in his 9th NBA season, Holiday has been with the Indiana Pacers since the start of the 2019-20 season and has carved out a key role in their attack on both ends of the floor.
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With Indiana likely heading towards a rebuild, they should be open to dealing some of their role players, making Justin Holiday one of the more underrated trade targets the Lakers could possibly acquire.
So how can the Lakers make a trade for the veteran wing work? Let’s take a look at a trade proposal put together by Bleacher Report’s Zach Buckley that sends Justin Holiday to Los Angeles.
