Despite their loss to the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night, the Brooklyn Nets have started the 2021-22 NBA season as a real title contender in the Eastern Conference. Not having Kyrie Irving limits their effectiveness against the best of the best, but they seem to be just fine with Kevin Durant and James Harden, two former league MVPs and elite-level scorers.
On the other side of the country, the Los Angeles Lakers have not been as successful as the Nets to begin the season, as they are struggling to find chemistry with basically an entirely new roster. Although they have former All-Stars and experienced talent on their roster, this veteran Lakers’ roster has been decimated by injuries early on in the year.
LeBron James has only played in six games so far, Talen Horton-Tucker is just making his way back to the floor after a thumb injury sidelined him at the start of the season and both Trevor Ariza and Kendrick Nunn have yet to make their team debuts.
When healthy, this team will eventually find a balance that elevates their play, but this team is currently 8-7 and they do not look like the title threat many expected them to be.
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With no cap space and already being a tax-paying team, the options via trade are limited for the Lakers, but they could still look to be active around the trade deadline.
They are able to move some of their players on minimum contracts and one player that could make a lot of sense for them to target is Jevon Carter from the Brooklyn Nets.
Brooklyn just acquired Carter not too long ago when they sent Landry Shamet to the Phoenix Suns, so they may not be keen on the idea of giving him up, but he is exactly the hard-nosed defender the Lakers are missing.
Losing Alex Caruso in the offseason has really hurt Los Angeles and they do not have that “spark” on their bench anymore. While inexperienced, Jevon Carter is a really strong defender on the perimeter and he could turn into that key role player the Lakers had with Caruso.
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There are no indications on whether or not Carter is even on the trade block in Brooklyn, but seeing as the Nets are also contending for a championship, they could be interested in some of the veteran players the Lakers have to offer up in a trade for depth.
Let’s take a look at who the Los Angeles Lakers could be willing to offer up in order to acquire Jevon Carter and another impactful defender on the wing.
