Lakers Insider Questions Team’s Ability to Pull Off Major Trade

Is there a possible trade in the works for the Los Angeles Lakers?

With LeBron James sitting out for the foreseeable future, there are those in Laker Land wondering whether some sort of acquisition could be made in order to help the team while James ramps up for his eventual return to the court.

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Dan Woike of The Athletic does a fabulous job covering the Lakers. He recently answered questions sent to him by fans. One of them asked whether an impact trade could be in the cards for the team.

"I don’t think there’s an obvious move to be made right now for a bunch of reasons, most of them stemming from the total lack of information about the strengths and weaknesses of the roster. We won’t have that information for quite some time. I think that’s the root of some of the frustration/impatience from the fan base and, well, maybe the media too. We’ve spent all summer thinking about this team, the roster, how the pieces do and don’t fit. And after three games, honestly, we’re not really any closer to the answers. We’ll get some more this week when Dončić debuts, but the information-gathering phase of the season hasn’t started yet.

"Just like the Lakers and their hopes of having a full roster, anyone wanting to make real assessments about this team is going to need to wait."

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The timing of the James injury is less than ideal. Having said that, the thought of adding a player at this stage where the coaching staff has already been implementing schematic strategy and forming rotations seems to be highly unlikely.

Additionally, who would the Lakers theoretically trade? With James out, Rui Hachimura will pivot back to his natural spot at the four. We've seen moments where he's been highly productive there going up against less-quick athletes.

At this stage, Dalton Knecht has little to no value on the trade market. Unless he explodes during the regular season and ups his value, there's no reason to trade a recent first-round pick for relative peanuts.

Even with James sidelined for potentially a month, the team likely will function better with preexisting chemistry and cohesion built from the summer/preseason periods rather than with the addition of a new player being thrown into the proverbial deep end.

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