News: Lakers prayer decided to quite the club….
The Los Angeles Lakers returned the majority of their core from the 2022-23 season, when they advanced to the Western Conference Finals.
Despite doing so and bringing on players who will most likely play key roles in Gabe Vincent, Christian Wood, and Taurean Prince, some changes may still occur.
According to Lakers source Jovan Buha, the organization will make a move before the trade deadline, which is slated for Feb. 8 this season.
Looking at the current Lakers roster, one player stands out as a viable trade chip: D’Angelo Russell. Despite some doubts regarding his future with the Lakers, he re-signed with them in the offseason.
The former No. 2 overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft agreed to a two-year, $36 million contract. It’s worth noting that he apparently renounced the implicit no-trade clause in his contract, making a potential trade involving him this season simpler to pull off. He is not tradeable until December 15 of this year and has a player option for the second year of his contract.
Only time will tell if the Lakers make any significant deals before the trade deadline. Last season, they acquired Russell, Jarrod Vanderbilt, Rui Hachimura, and others in a dramatic roster shake-up.
They came back to make the play-in tournament and then the Western Conference Finals, but they couldn’t beat the eventual champion Denver Nuggets, who swept them in four games.
Despite that disappointing finale, the club appears to be doing well. LeBron James is healthy and appears to have recaptured the quickness and burst he had before breaking his foot last season, while head coach Darvin Ham has cautioned that James and Anthony Davis are as “hungry as ever” this season.
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