After the defeat last season, the Lakers decided to bet on the treasure, during which they cleared out a number of high-quality chips on the team, and introduced double-digit new signings around the big three to create a new championship team.
As a result, the Lakers, who had high hopes at the beginning of the game, had a winning percentage of less than 50% in the halfway point of the current season, ranking eighth in the West.
Such a record is significantly lower than the expectations of the outside world, but also lower than the Lakers' internal expectations, the team management has begun to work on the lineup adjustment work, veteran Rondo has been sent away, Jordan Jr., Howard, Bazemore has been put on the shelves, Nunn and Little Tucker are also frequently involved in trade rumors.
In this case, the famous Shams also revealed that the Lakers are actively pursuing Grant, who is currently being peddled by the Pistons, and many teams are interested in getting this new star who is good at attacking and defending.
To this end, the US media "Lakeshowlife" listed 3 reasons to support the Lakers to trade Grant, and gave a 4-for-2 transaction plan.
Potential trading scenarios
Lakers: Get Grant + Saben-Lee;
Pistons: Get Horton Tucker + Nunn + Jordan Jr. + 2027 first-round picks.
Reason one: outside defense
In order to provide the space needed by the Big Three, the Lakers management resolutely broke the original defensive system and introduced a large number of shooters, which made the Lakers' defensive performance this season extremely bad.
From the first place last season, slipped to the current 16th place in the league, especially in the side defense, the Lakers due to the lack of confrontation and movement ability, simply can not limit the opponent's flanks.
Johnson's addition did alleviate that, but he's not a top defender, and he's made the Lakers better because he's hard enough and young.
Although Grant is also not a top defender, Grant is clearly a better flanking defender than a league fringe player like Stanley Johnson.
He has the flexibility, confrontation, height and arm span that the Lakers wing needs, and Grant is just as aggressive.
So far in his career, he can average 1.1 blocks per game, as well as 1.1 steals, and his addition will undoubtedly improve the defensive performance of the Lakers' flanks.
Reason two: Three-point shooting ability
For any player who wants to shine next to the Lakers' big three, three-point shooting is a must-have ability.
Grant does not seem to stand out in this regard, especially after joining the Pistons, his three-point performance is not outstanding, there is no top shooter at all, but according to the Lakers' chips, they do not want to change back to Players like Curry and Klay, they can only accept Grant's level of shooters.
And Grant is fully worth the team's expectations, his three-point shooting rate during the Pistons is not high, mainly because he added a lot of dribble shots, when the Nuggets as a fixed-point shooter, he has a 39% shooting rate, and this is exactly what he has to do after joining the Lakers.
Reason three: Another scorer who averaged 20 points per game
While all teams in the league believe in "defending to win championships," for any team they won't turn around having more players on the roster who can average 20 points per game.
Especially for a team like the Lakers, who are in trouble, adding a player who has the ability to hand over 20 points is giving the team another possibility.
After betting on Grant, the Lakers will have James, Thick Brow, Westbrook, Munch, Anthony and Grant, who have the ability to score 20 points in a single game, which will undoubtedly increase the likelihood of the Lakers winning.