According to US media reports, the Los Angeles Lakers have traded the newly acquired Valentine to the New York Knicks. Previously, the Lakers sent veteran Rondo to the Cavaliers to get Valentine, Rondo was in a health and safety agreement at the time, and now Rondo's safety agreement has been lifted, and the two sides have reached a deal. However, Valentine was traded to the Knicks by the Lakers before he even arrived in New York.
The deal was made by the Knicks, who gave the right to sign two draft players, in exchange for Valentine's $1.1 million, and the Los Angeles Lakers sent Valentine away mainly to free up a spot and save a total of 400 million in wages and luxury taxes that would otherwise have to be paid to Valentine.
At present, the Lakers will face three contracts to be resolved, first Bradley's, according to the Lakers, the Los Angeles Lakers need to make a decision before Friday local time, whether to turn Bradley to a guarantee contract or make a decision to cut. The other two contracts were Stanley Johnson and Collison, who signed a ten-day contract.
The Lakers' contract for Bradley will definitely be resolved, and Johnson, Collison these two estimate that the Lakers will choose to let Johnson stay, Johnson's performance during the Lakers does not seem to be bad, although the average is only 6.8 points, 2.8 rebounds, 1.4 assists per game, but he averages 1.2 steals per game. It seems that Johnson's role is not reflected in the data, when he came to the Lakers, it was to help James share a lot of defensive pressure, and most of them were James's defensive alignment when the Lakers' small lineup faced the No. 4 and No. 5 players, and Johnson was on the court when he was responsible, and Johnson's enthusiasm on the court was much better than That of Bazemore and others.
During this period of time when the Lakers were absent from the thick eyebrows, Vogel was almost using the five small lineups, James was the center, although there was no need to worry too much on the offensive end, but on the defensive end, whether it was facing strong teams or weak teams, it was not so difficult for opponents to score, so it was not easy for the Lakers to win the game.
This season, the Lakers' defense has become the most obvious shortcoming, it is reported that the reason why the Los Angeles Lakers will vacate a place is to leave a player with strong defensive ability, and the Player that the Lakers most hope to get is Celtics Smart, or Powell of the Blazers.
However, it is estimated that the Lakers most want to get Smart, it is well known that Smart's defensive ability in the league is relatively strong, this season Smart can contribute two steals per game, and his defensive enthusiasm is also what the Lakers want to have, at the same time Smart has also become the Celtics' assist king this season, ranking first in the Green Army with an average of 5.5 assists per game.