It’s no secret that things haven’t gone as planned for the Los Angeles Lakers this season as they currently sit in ninth place in the Western Conference at 26-30.
Despite their struggles though, anytime you have team with LeBron James and Anthony Davis, you still feel that you have a team that’s capable of competing for a championship.
That doesn’t mean that you don’t look for opportunities to improve your roster though, and Thursday’s trade deadline game the Lakers an opportunity to do that.
While there’s no doubt Rob Pelinka has been making calls nonstop to find a deal that works, the Laker’ lack of desirable assets can make that difficult.
The Lakers reportedly wanted to trade Russell Westbrook, although with his massive salary, they would have had to attach significant assets to him to do so. Outside of Westbrook, the Lakers also reportedly were shopping Talen Horton-Tucker and Kendrick Nunn in search of minor upgrades.
Despite their efforts, the deadline came and went and it doesn’t appear the Lakers made any moves, per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN:
No deal for the Lakers, source tells ESPN. THey'll focus on the buyout market.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 10, 2022
It doesn’t come as a huge surprise that the Lakers didn’t make any moves given teams did not have much interest in what they had to offer.
They will now shift their focus to the buyout market, where they have made roster upgrades in the past. They don’t have any open roster spots though, so they would have to cut someone to add another player.
James feels trade deadline was ‘weighing’ on Lakers
As far as why the Lakers have played so poorly as of late, LeBron James feels the trade deadline and rumors surrounding the team have played a part in it.
“Obviously it’s something that’s weighing on this group that we’re trying to all get through,” James said after the loss to Portland. “Almost feels like it’s like fog, just fog in the air and we’re trying to see what’s on the other side of it. I obviously take today, take tomorrow like any other day and if something changes, then I’ll approach it.
“But I’m literally just tired as hell right now. I just want to get some wine and get into bed and wake up tomorrow and feel good about what tomorrow has in store and we’ll see what happens. We’ll see what happens as far as the deadline, but other than that I’m kind of just focused on what we can do to be better.”
Now that no one was traded though, maybe the focus can shift back towards the court as the Lakers look to salvage their season.
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