The Lakers did not make a big move in the trade market this summer, but only renewed the contracts of role players such as Russell, Rivers, and Hachimura who performed well with the Lakers last season. Role players led by Rivers and Russell are the biggest contributors to the Lakers' advance to the Western Conference finals, injecting new vitality into the Lakers at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, easing the pressure on James and Thick Eyebrows. But personally, I think that these role players have a big gap with top superstars in terms of individual ability, physical talent, and key ball handling, and it is unrealistic to rely on this lineup to impact the championship. Therefore, the Lakers management must quickly use their trade chips to recruit big-name players in the free agent market, and assist James and thick eyebrows to attack the championship!
According to NBA reporter Chirs Honny, Lakers general manager Pelinka is likely to brew a 6-for-2 deal this summer to help the Lakers complete the roster upgrade. The specific content of the deal is that the Lakers send Russell, Hachimura, Christie, Rivers, Vanderbilt and a first-round pick as trade chips to get their star Lillard and interior core Nurkic from the Trail Blazers. Lillard has applied to Blazers management for a trade and is joining the Heat by name. But the Heat couldn't make a trade offer that would satisfy the Blazers, leaving Lillard's trade deadlocked. And the Lakers are expected to take advantage of the void and take Lillard before the Heat. Although the Lakers' trade offer only one first-round pick, Russell, Rivers, etc. are strong role players and young players, and the Blazers can either keep them on the team to focus on development, or make subsequent trades for other rebuilding resources. It is worth mentioning that before the Lakers completed the Wei Shao trade, James and Thick Eyebrows once invited their cousin to Zhan Huang's mansion to discuss joining the Big Three to compete for the championship, but because the Lakers chose Wei Shao, Lillard did not qualify for the Lakers. If the deal goes through, the three will also continue the frontier.
Lillard's excellent individual offensive ability can effectively relieve the scoring pressure on James, and if James can change his style of play, incarnate the team playmaker to cede ball and offensive dominance to Lillard, perhaps the Lakers' offensive efficiency will be higher. In addition to Lillard, the Lakers also got Nurkic from the deal. As the core of the Lakers' interior line, thick eyebrows have been plagued by injuries in recent seasons, one of the very important reasons is that the Lakers' internal line, no one can stand up to share the pressure of thick eyebrows, and from the technical point of view, thick eyebrows are more suitable for appearing in the No. 4 position, but thick eyebrows appear more in the No. 5 position. If Nurkic joins the Lakers. It can not only appear as the main player, so that the thick eyebrows return to the more familiar No. 4 position, or it can appear at the same time as the thick eyebrows to form the Lakers' interior twin towers, with Nurkic as an important interior helper, it can also effectively reduce the probability of thick eyebrows being injured, improve his attendance, and the Lakers' interior arc frame and height will also be greatly improved.
But trading Lillard also comes with some risk for the Lakers, who signed an early contract extension with the Blazers last summer for a two-year total of more than $120 million. At present, his cousin's contract with the Blazers has 4 years left, which also means that if the Lakers cannot win a championship in the next two seasons, then when Lillard's average annual salary exceeds 60 million, Lillard will become a hot potato in the Lakers. (This article is purely personal, you can give your own opinion, but do not make personal attacks!) ）