Lakers Reportedly Still Exploring Consolidation Trades

Pelinka made it clear at his annual preseason press conference that a consolidation trade to fix their roster crunch was still on the table, and that appears to still be the case with less than a week until Opening Night.

If the Lakers do make a trade, the prime candidates to get moved are Dalton Knecht and Jaden Hardy, who are both on expiring contracts.

Areas of need for the Lakers if they are looking to acquire someone include a starting power forward and backup center. Considering a consolidation trade would likely not be a blockbuster move or anything of that nature, perhaps they could find a way to find a quality backup center behind Walker Kessler while also fixing their roster crunch.

If Pelinka is able to pull that off then it will have been a very solid offseason for the purple and gold.

Recapping Lakers’ offseason

It’s been an eventful offseason for the Lakers filled with tons of roster changes. Among the new players they have brought in are Walker Kessler, Quentin Grimes, Sandro Mamukelashvili, Collin Sexton, Kevon Looney, Jaden Hardy, Ziaire Williams and Matisse Thybulle through trades or free agency.

Whenever there are this many changes though, that means some players have departed, and that includes players like LeBron James, Marcus Smart, Rui Hachimura, Deandre Ayton, Jaxson Hayes and Luke Kennard.

The focus for the Lakers was adding youth and athleticism around Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, and they have to feel good about the moves they made to make that happen. Now, the hope is this group will be able to build some continuity moving forward to avoid a similar roster turnover in the future.