With over a quarter of the NBA season in the books, the Los Angeles Lakers are the No. 10 seed in the Western Conference, and they’re unlikely to climb much higher than that this season without a big move at the trade deadline to balance their roster around LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
Magic Johnson, who won five championships with the Lakers as their star point guard, knows a thing or two about facilitating trades in Los Angeles, having served as the Lakers’ president of basketball operations from 2017 to 2019. During that time, Johnson had opportunities to upgrade the Lakers’ roster that never came to fruition.
“They had the trade done — Kuzma for DeMar,” Johnson said during on appearance on FS1’s “Speak.”
“And then we were gonna get Buddy Hield,” Johsnon continued. “That’s all that we had to do.”
Kuzma was eventually traded from the Lakers in 2021 as part of the package that brought Russell Westbrook to Los Angeles. The Lakers also sent Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Montrezl Harrell and a first-round pick to Washington.
Johnson abruptly resigned from his position with the Lakers in 2019, following a 37-45 season.
One of the names Johnson likes for the Lakers ahead of this season’s trade deadline is Jimmy Butler.
“I like Jimmy,” Johnson said. “He’s mean and physical.”
But he’s skeptical that the Lakers will give up the assets necessary to land Butler.
“You almost have to say: Do you want to win now or do you want to save all the draft capital for later? And I say, with LeBron, you’ve got to put out the best team.”
The NBA trade deadline is on Feb. 6.
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DeMar DeRozan
Buddy Hield
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