Lakers fans at the start of the season never imagined that this star-studded team would be only ninth in the West this season, falling into the playoff area, and if the playoffs started now, they would need to win two consecutive games in the playoffs to make the playoffs. With the deal deadline looming, they don't have enough time to adjust now, and based on their pre-season goal of competing for the championship, we can safely say that they have failed this season.
If the Lakers now decide to do a clearance sale before the deal deadline and abandon this team that has no chance of cohesion this season, I believe no one will blame them. Injuries have slowed the expected cohesion between the Big Three of Russell Westbrook, LeBron James and Anthony Davis, who have played just 17 games together.
While the latest reports suggest that the Lakers won't make any major moves before the deal deadline, it's not so much that they won't, but rather because they can't, and because of the lack of trading assets, they simply don't have any way to take action to significantly improve the situation of this team.
Due to NBA rules, the team can't trade first-round picks for two consecutive years, so the Lakers' recent tradeable first-round signings have to wait until 2027, with limited value. And their best young player, Tarren Horton Tucker, has seen a rapid decline in market value this season due to poor performances, and if the Lakers make a trade decision now, they will only send him away at the lowest price on the market. And even if the Lakers can make a magical deal, such as packing a trade from the Pistons to Jerami Grant with Horton Tucker, Kendrick Nine and their 2027 first-round picks, it may still not be enough to turn this team into a championship-level team.
Westbrook is a Lakers player who has been trading rumors all season, but the fatal thing is that his contract is too big to trade, and the only feasible trade solution is to exchange him for John Wall from the Houston Rockets, but the Lakers may also have to take the first round of signing, and the shooting is also unreliable Wall does not make any sense for the Lakers.
The most controversial player in the Lakers' roster is Carmelo Anthony, Who has performed better than expected this season and is one of the Lakers' most consistent pitchers, the veteran is in the final stages of his career, he joined the Lakers to fulfill his dream of a championship, he deserves to play in a team closer to the championship, so the Lakers might as well help him and send him to a championship team like the Warriors or the Suns.
The Lakers' most traded player at the moment is Malik Munch, in a recent interview, Munch mentioned that in the past offseason, the Lakers were the only team that offered him a contract, giving him the opportunity to return to the NBA to prove himself, he is grateful to the Lakers, which is why he finally chose to accept the veteran's base salary to join the Lakers.
As a result, this humble signing has become one of the few highlights of the Lakers' season. Munch's contributions to shooting and scoring so far so far this season far outweigh his $1.8 million salary, and the natural fit between him and James is also the only player in the Lakers' lineup outside of the Big Three with autonomous offensive capabilities.
The Charlotte Hornets chose him in 2017 with an 11th pick in the first round, but he never got a stable position in the Hornets' rotation and gradually fell to the point of no one. Joining the Lakers has completely reversed his career trajectory, he is playing the best season of his career, averaging 6 minutes more playing time per game than the previous season, and can get 12.6 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.5 assists, all of which have set a career high, and he is only 24 years old, he is definitely the most valuable trading asset the Lakers currently have.
Directly trading Munch into another player makes no sense for the Lakers, because Munch is back on a base salary contract, and the Lakers will never be able to exchange a better base salary player than Munch, but he may indeed be included in a multi-person trade to improve the success of the transaction.
While fans generally don't support the idea of trading Munch, the Lakers do have several reasons to trade Munch, starting with Munch's poor performance on the defensive end, his lack of height and strength. Secondly, the Lakers are unlikely to keep Munch next season, because he has only signed a one-year contract, so the Lakers only have Munch's non-bird rights, plus the Lakers' total salary has exceeded the salary cap, so the most that can be provided to Munch is a new contract with a starting salary increase of 20% of the existing annual salary, that is, an annual salary of 2.15 million US dollars, which is still the basic salary level, and according to Munch's performance, it is believed that the annual salary is at least above $15 million.
The reason for supporting the Lakers to keep Munch is simple, he is one of the only young players in the Lakers, so if they trade him, their age problems will become worse, and he may also be their best pure shooter, and the Lakers need as much shooting ability as possible because of James' presence. According to the Lakers' current situation, it is true that in this case, the reason for retaining Munch obviously exceeds the reason for trading him, because the Lakers will definitely not mess up, even if they can't win the championship, they must try to make the playoffs, and retaining Munch can maximize their probability of entering the playoffs.
Regardless of whether the Lakers will do anything before this year's trade deadline, they should use their existing players as a cornerstone to move forward. James and Thick Brow brother naturally needless to say, they are the Lakers' non-sale, and in addition to Austin Reeves and Munch, almost no one in the Lakers played well enough to prove that they were in a non-tradeable state, but Reeves and Munch played the best this season, they made a huge contribution to the Lakers, in this regard alone, the Lakers should not move them.