The Los Angeles Lakers were celebrating a championship just 1.5 years ago in the NBA Bubble and while they assembled what they thought to be the best team in the league this past offseason, the Lakers currently find themselves struggling at 22-23.
In fact, “struggling” is an understatement for how this team looks, as they could be heading for a very eventful and chaotic trade deadline in the next few weeks.
LeBron James is the only contributing factor on this team right now and the “Russell Westbrook experiment” has not worked out whatsoever.
It is worth trying to call the Wizards up at the trade deadline and asking for a refund, but Washington should quickly turn Lakers’ GM Rob Pelinka down, citing their “no returns policy” when it comes to Russell Westbrook!
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Where the Lakers go from here is the biggest question mark because they are the oldest team in the league, have no real trade assets and Anthony Davis is still sidelined due to a left MCL sprain he suffered on Dec. 17 in Minnesota.
The only way this team may be able to “reset” and salvage the season is by trading one of their stars. Nobody is going to want Westbrook at this point given his struggles and ineffectiveness next to LeBron James this season, so what about Anthony Davis?
It is an extreme long-shot to believe the Lakers will be trading Anthony Davis this season, but when healthy, he is one of the best two-way big men in the league and could bring a ton of value back to Los Angeles, enough for them to become championship contenders once again.
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The Boston Celtics were a team interested in Davis before the Pelicans traded him to the Lakers in 2019 and this interest could still exist. Given their struggles in the Eastern Conference, they could be a team that is willing to make a big move at the deadline too in order to cement themselves as real contenders.
The Lakers and Celtics are the NBA’s biggest rivalry, making it very hard to believe that these two teams will strike a deal with one another, but let’s take a look at a crazy trade proposal put together by Bleacher Report’s Zach Buckley involving not just Anthony Davis, but Jaylen Brown as well.
