Former Laker Available in Trade Talks and He Would Make Sense for LA

The NBA's trade deadline is just two weeks away. By February 9, the NBA's contenders will have to have their rosters pretty much set in stone for the playoff push — of course, they'll still have the buyout market, though.

But the Lakers know the deadline is coming, and also know they have to do pretty much whatever it takes to build a championship contender before then. They got ahead of the market and traded for 6-foot-8 forward Rui Hachimura, who already provided a nice impact on the court — and they got him for really good value.

The Lakers can't be done making moves, though, and could look to bring back a former Laker who's reportedly on the market in shooting guard (and I emphasize the word shooting) Jordan Clarkson.

In a recent substack article from NBA insider Marc Stein, he noted that the Utah Jazz are listening to offers on everyone on their roster outside of Lauri Markannen and Walker Kessler. Using my incredible detective work, I was able to come to the conclusion that Clarkson was, in fact, available for trade.

So why would he make sense for the Lakers?

Well first and foremost, Clarkson is a shooter. He's never met a shot he didn't like, and has the ability to get hot with the best of them.

This season, Clarkson is averaging a career-high 21 points per game, shooting 45.2 percent from the field, 35.1 percent from deep and 82.3 percent from the free-throw line.

But remember what I said about getting hot? Clarkson's career-high in points is 45, which he scored in a game last season. He's had four 40-point games in his career, and has four 30-point games this season, including 38 against the Philadelphia 76ers and 39 against the New Orleans Pelicans.

The Lakers have struggled at times to find scoring in lineups that don't feature LeBron James and Anthony Davis, and could use a spark like Clarkson off the bench.

The only question is what his value will be. Clarkson has a player option for next year valued at a little over $14 million. I don't know if the Lakers will want to have him under contract for the next two seasons, especially as they try to lock up Hachimura to a long term extension. The Jazz would certainly want a first-round pick back for the 30-year-old guard, so unless the Lakers want to part with one of their highly-coveted first-rounders, a move is unlikely. No one saw the Hachimura coming, though, so you never know. Wait, actually, we literally saw it coming.