Lakers News: Former LA Point Guard May Be Available Ahead Of Trade Deadline
Current Minnesota Timberwolves starting point guard D'Angelo Russell is having one of his better seasons since his Brooklyn Nets All-Star heyday, but he may still lack the leadership and defensive poise necessary to anchor Minnesota's middling offense.
As such, Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report indicates that some rival executives around the league expect Minnesota to try to offload Russell's money at the deadline. Russell is earning $31.4 million this season, the last year of his current deal.
“I don’t think the Wolves reinvest in Russell,” a Western Conference executive said. “The combination of players they have just isn’t clicking.”
Pincus indicates that the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Clippers, two teams now borderline-desperate to improve their lead guards, could be potential target partners.
Why can't the Lakers get in on this? What would it cost to add the player whom they drafted No. 2 overall in 2015?
With Kyrie Irving unavailable for the home stretch of the 2022-23 season, LA should look elsewhere to make point guard improvements. D'Angelo Russell is an imperfect player, but could be a significant upgrade over its current point guard rotation of Dennis Schröder and Russell Westbrook, neither of whom can shoot particularly well.
To be fair, Schröder is making 35% of his 3.5 triples per game. The vast majority of those takes (3.0) are catch-and-shoot tries (more importantly than off-the-dribble takes for someone who's going to be a release valve for LeBron James at the end of games), and on those looks he makes 37.2%. But given that he's still on the veteran's minimum, the Lakers could still retain his contract and shift him to a bench role.
What would a trade for D-Lo look like? And would the Timberwolves, who so badly overpaid for Rudy Gobert in terms of outgoing picks over the summer, already be amenable to a short-term punt to reclaim some future draft capital?
The Timberwolves would probably try to get at least one unprotected future first-round draft pick from LA. Monetarily, it's hard to make the Russell Westbrook contract work in a deal, so the Lakers would most likely need to send out some mid-level money back, with ex-Minnesota starting point guard Patrick Beverley's $13 million deal being the win-now centerpiece for the Timberwolves. A deal shipping out the money of Beverley, a first round pick, Lonnie Walker IV, and, yes, Rui Hachimura to Minnesota in exchange for Russell (who is extension-eligible) would work financially, but it losing three important rotation players for an upgrade at the point could be cumulatively risky. Pragmatically speaking, LA could only make the deal if it knew it could ink Russell to a reasonable (i.e. non-max) extension.
