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1 hour ago
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The Los Angeles Lakers have many problems in the short and long term, as they're without assets or young players and, frankly, don't have enough to even suggest they're a contending team right now.
Aside from Luka Doncic, it's really tough to get a sense of what this team can be in the future.
Doncic is incredible in his own right, so it wouldn't be surprising to see the Lakers have some success, but the reality is that outside of him, this just isn't a great team, and it's tough to imagine a scenario in which they become one.
Now, it wouldn't be crazy to see the Lakers take a swing or two on a young player. Beyond the limited assets Los Angeles has to work with in the future, it doesn't have many young, talented players.
That's why making a play for a guy like Jonathan Kuminga can make a lot of sense. One writer recently floated the idea of doing so, though the price would still be a bit more than most Lakers fans probably want it to be.
“The problem, however, is going to be the price point,” Jedd Pagaduan wrote. “Kuminga was slated to make around $24 million for next season, but the Hawks chose to reject his team option, making him a free agent. With that in mind, it will be interesting to see how much the 23-year-old will demand in the open market.
“The Lakers could, perhaps, package the recently-acquired Jaden Hardy along with a slew of second-round picks to bring Kuminga over in a sign-and-trade with the Hawks. But does LA truly want to deplete their asset base even further after giving up the world to trade for Kessler?”
Not that Jaden Hardy is some great player, and second-round picks aren't exactly valuable in today's NBA, but the Lakers really don't have anything outside of that to move. Sure, they can package a few other guys in other trades in the future, but the reality is that Los Angeles has nothing, and one more bad trade can really put this organization in a position that it can't get out of.
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