With the tide of trades coming, the Lakers also want to strengthen the team through trades. However, the U.S. media generally looked down on the Lakers' prospects because they didn't have much leverage available. In addition to the big three of James, Westbrook and Thick Eyebrows, there are really not many chips that the Lakers can come up with. According to Jake Fischer, in the eyes of other team management, only Tucker and Nunn have transaction value among the Lakers' role players.
In the offseason, the Lakers signed 11 new players, but they are basically all low-salary players. Players like Anthony, Munch, howard, all are good value for money, very cost-effective basic salary players. The Lakers had no reason to send them away. Like Jordan Jr., Rondo, Bazemore, etc., the value of the transaction is very limited.
In this Lakers team, only two role players, Tucker and Nunn, have transaction value. So far this season, Tucker has played in 15 games, averaging 11.3 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game. With a knee injury, Nunn has not played for the team this season. Tucker's annual salary is $9.5 million, and Nunn's is $5 million. The two could get the Lakers for a star of about $15 million.
In addition, the Lakers want to trade, and they can't come up with decent chips. Because in addition to player assets, the Lakers' draft assets have long been hollowed out. The Lakers gave the Pelicans both 2022 and 2024 first-round picks, and the Pelicans also hold the right to swap the two teams' 2023 first-round picks.
Therefore, the Lakers want to strengthen the team during the trading period, but in fact, there is very little room for maneuvering. As the US media said, the Lakers discussed the possibility of trading Wei Shao, but found that there was no matching salary contract at all.