Lakers give up more picks to add young center than they did for Luka Doncic

When the Lakers traded for Doncic, they had to give up a 2029 first-round pick and a second-rounder, while the Mavericks also gave up a second-round pick. To acquire the 23-year-old Williams, the Lakers gave up their 2031 first-rounder, plus a 2030 first-round pick swap, along with their first-round pick for this past draft, Dalton Knecht.

That's a big haul for Williams, the No. 15 pick from the 2022 draft. He's been a great lob threat for LaMelo Ball with the Hornets, which is similar to players who have thrived with Doncic in the past, like Dereck Lively II and Dwight Powell. The third-year center is averaging 15.6 points and 9.6 rebounds and shooting nearly 60 percent from the field.

Those are nice statistics, but there's one stat that should give the Lakers pause: games played.

In Williams' rookie year, he played 43 of Charlotte's 82 games. Last season, it was 19 games. This season, it's 23 games out of 48. In total, he's played in less than 40 percent of the games in his NBA career. He had a bad ankle sprain as a rookie, a bad back as a sophomore and then suffered a foot tendon injury this season.

Williams is still young, only 23 years old. It's obvious why the Lakers, down to Jaxson Hayes at center, want to maximize the combination of Doncic and 40-year-old LeBron James while they can.

But with their 2025 first-round pick going to the Atlanta Hawks, their 2027 pick going to the Utah Jazz, their 2029 pick going to the Mavericks and the 2031 pick going to Charlotte, the Lakers have blown their stack of draft capital for future trades.

Williams might be the Lakers' center of the future. At this price, he better be.