The Los Angeles Lakers made crucial additions to their roster around the NBA Trade Deadline. Rob Pelinka got crafty and pulled off a trade that helped the team in acquiring D’Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley, and Jarred Vanderbilt.
It created a new-look roster for the Los Angeles Lakers, which has been quite effective. This was proven once again when the Lakers utterly dominated the Warriors in their most recent matchup. Keeping that in mind, it’s no surprise that the Lakers are reportedly planning to keep the three crucial pieces on the roster alongside Rui Hachimura and Mo Bamba for a long time.
Via Heavy Sports:
“They would never have given up that pick unless they planned to make some long-term investments,” one GM told Heavy Sports. “They were willing to trade it but they needed some guys just heading into their primes to convince them to give it up. Now they’ve got (D’Angelo) Russell, they’ve got (Jarred) Vanderbilt, they’ve got Malik Beasley, plus (Rui) Hachimura, Austin Reaves. We’ll see what they do with Mo Bamba, too.
That’s a base of young players that they did not have before, you know, guys who are mid-20s (in age). They’re going to keep those guys in place. They’re all in on paying those guys.”
The anonymous general manager revealed that the Lakers are already ‘all in’ on paying the newly acquired young guys. It certainly seems like the franchise is in a hurry to extend the players.
But can we blame the Purple and Gold? They made the mistake of letting go of all the crucial pieces from the 2020 NBA Championship-winning team apart from LeBron James and Anthony Davis. The organization just wants to make sure it doesn’t repeat the same mistake again.
LeBron James And Anthony Davis Finally Have Help Around Them
LeBron James and Anthony Davis are the two most crucial players in the current Lakers team. But even they need quality role players around them to help the Lakers win games.
One such player is D’Angelo Russell, who has easily fit in well with the duo. Evidently, when there was an injury scare around Russell against the Warriors, it made the fans worry. Fortunately, Russell’s ankle injury is day-to-day, and he will be back soon.
James and Davis-led Lakers are now 28-32 and are in the perfect situation to finish as a top 10 seed in the Western Conference.
Source: fadeawayworld
