Surprisingly, the Lakers did not push for any move before the trade deadline, considering their performance and team conditions before the trade deadline, the inability to change the lineup seems to largely mean that the team will be difficult to compete this season, but the Lakers management seems to prefer to maintain the flexibility of the lineup.
The Lakers' inability to make a move before the deal deadline was reportedly largely due to their unwillingness to absorb multi-year contracts:
"According to NBA insiders, the Lakers made it clear to other teams that they were unwilling to accept multi-year contracts," Los Angeles Times reporter Dan Walker reported.
Even if the Lakers are a team with a big three lineup of James, Davis and Westbrook (which actually didn't work well enough), their failure to make a move before the trade deadline largely means it will be difficult to participate in this season's title race.
But the biggest benefit of refusing to take on a multi-year contract is certainly to remain flexible for years to come, with James, Davis and Horton Tucker being the Lakers' only guaranteed contracts for the 2022-23 season, as well as the player options that Westbrook and Nunn have.
By the 2023-24 season, the Lakers will also have better lineup flexibility, when only Davis's contract and Horton Tucker's player options are left in the Lakers. Considering that the Lakers have always been a team that can make heavy moves in the free agent market, such lineup flexibility may indeed make it possible for teams to promote blockbuster moves in the future and rebuild the lineup with championship strength.
But the problem is that the Lakers' inability to complete the reinforcement this season means that they may sacrifice the only remaining championship window left by LeBron James and Anthony Davis, which simply means that even James and Davis have become "victims" of the Lakers' management team-building strategy.