The Los Angeles Lakers have multiple problems right now. Their personnel isn’t quite suited for their defensive scheme. Their offense is overly reliant on soon-to-be 40-year-old LeBron James. Lakers executives Jeanie Buss and Rob Pelinka take turns trying to solve a whodunnit when they’re the perpetrators.
Lakers Among Top Contenders In Brandon Ingram Sweepstakes
To put it bluntly, the Lakers are a mess but it’s nothing new. The coaches may change. The supporting cast may get tinkered with. Yet, the product Los Angeles puts out on the floor is consistently underwhelming. So, at this point, LA has three choices.
The first option would be to replace head coach JJ Redick before the situation gets any worse. It’s quite possible that the first-time head coach is in over his head. If he’s losing the locker room and the team is quitting just a quarter of the way through the season, they might need to put a different general in command.
Redick said he’s going to meet with his coaching staff, his players (as a group) and then certain players individually to try to prevent the group from splintering further. https://t.co/dbJWD7geGR
— Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) December 5, 2024
The Lakers’ second option would be to make minor transactions to shore up their weak spots. To this point, their lack of high-level three-point specialists, on-ball defenders, help defenders, and paint enforcers have been glaring holes. One or two trades or signing could cover them all but it’s unlikely.
Lastly, they could cosplay as the Los Angeles Dodgers and swing for the fences. Trading for a high-salary star might not be the Lakers’ preference, but it’s James’s. With that being said, James has four times as many championship rings as the Buss and Pelinka tag team. He’s been to the NBA Finals 10 times as many times.
Frankly, he might just know a bit more about how to get their franchise where they want to be than them.
Building A Big 3
If they were to take the Big 3 route, finding an All-Star partner for James and Anthony Davis, they have interesting options.
Chicago Bulls guard Zach LaVine has been tied to them in rumors for quite some time. Though he doesn’t help them improve defensively, he can play third fiddle or be the No. 1 option on any given night. His outside jumper also allows him to complement James and Davis well, as both are at their best scoring around the rim.
In a nightmare-slash-dream scenario, Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard could become available. Had the Clippers not have been playing so well without Leonard, this might not be a conversation. In fact, they could still use his added firepower to take the team to the next level. Still, they’ve found a formula that works and that leads to questions about his future there.
Familiar Faces
Then there’s New Orleans Pelicans forward Brandon Ingram.
Ingram has overlap with other stars that are or could become available, such as Washington Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma and Minnesota Timberwolves forward Julius Randle. Ironically, all three of these players were once teammates on the Lakers. Over time, Randle has become the most accomplished. However, Ingram would mesh better with the Lakers than either of his former teammates.
Like Randle, and to a lesser extent Kuzma, Ingram has shown the ability to take over a game offensively. He’s averaged 23.0 points per game since 2019-20 and scored 30 or more points 60 times in that stretch. Yet, he’s also keenly aware of how to play off of more talented teammates.
That latter point doesn’t separate him from Randle and Kuzma in a vacuum. However, his efficacy off-ball —buoyed by his three-point shooting —does. The North Carolina native isn’t Hubert Davis out there, but he’s generally consistent. In fact, he’s made 37.0 percent of his threes over the past eight seasons. For comparison, Randle has rained in just 33.7 percent of his three-point attempts in that span. Kuzma has converted 33.6 percent of his threes.
At the other end, the key has always been motivating Ingram to play hard on defense. He’s not always going all-out at that end; it’s simply not his nature. However, he’s taken more pride in his defense over the years, and that’s important. Part of a coach’s job is to find the right way to prod players and coax out their potential. Someone that’s self-motivated makes that task a lot easier.
Life Without LeBron James
If there’s one last benefit to trading for Ingram, it’s that he helps them survive life without James.
This season, though James wants to play all 82 games, it’s possible that he doesn’t due to rest or injury. He may or may not get to choose which games those are, and any given absence could be during an important matchup. Having Ingram on hand relieves a lot of the potential stress associated with that.
In a big picture view, James will likely be retiring after this season or the next. Rather than hoping someone will want to sign with them after losing a player of James’s stature, the Lakers can be proactive and have his replacement on the roster already.
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