The idea of Trae Young getting traded to the Los Angeles Lakers has been floating around for a year and a half. And it is now gaining steam. On his recent podcast, Bill Simmons suggested that the Lakers are the only team he sees trading for Young. But things are not that easy. Maybe last year, the Lakers could have traded for the electric point guard. Now? Things are not that easy.
The new collective bargaining agreement changed the way how the market works, and how teams can make trades. The Lakers might be willing to trade for Trae Young, but their hands are 99.9% tied. It will take some creative solutions to get there.
The Lakers Cannot Trade for Trae Young – Here is Why
Recently, ESPN published a story about teams that need to make a move. Of course, the Lakers were one of the mentioned teams. But as their analysts say, the new CBA makes things complicated. Under the previous CBA, which was in force last year and at the trade deadline, the Lakers could trade for Young.
Now, they are over the first apron, and under new rules, they cannot take a dollar back in a trade. The story mentioned the example of trading Russell for Malcolm Brogdon, who has a higher salary.
At the moment, the Los Angeles Lakers are $30,000 below the second apron and cannot aggregate salaries if the post-trade salaries leave them over the second apron.
Trae Young is making $43 million and change this year. That means the Lakers have to send more than $43 million out so that they can get Young. For example, packaging Rui Hachimura and D’Angelo Russell will not work, they make around $35.6 million together. Bill’s proposed idea is that Russell, Hachimura, and Gabe Vincent for Young and Cody Zeller will work salary-wise. But why would the Hawks accept that?
The ESPN article gave another hypothetical trade idea, which sounds nice in theory, but as they mentioned, doesn’t work salary-wise. The trade is Russell + Austin Reaves + Jared Vanderbilt for Trae Young. That is close salary-wise, but teams will have to get more creative to get there.
To put it simply, the Lakers do not have the salary that will make sense in a Trae Young trade. They also lack young players that will entice the Hawks in trading their current franchise player. The only way to for the Lakers to get there is to sacrifice their entire future, firsts in 2029 and 31, and swap rights in 2030.
How Can the Lakers Get Creative?
The ESPN article mentions that the Lakers have to create more flexibility below the second apron. That means attaching cash, second-round picks, and Christian Wood‘s contract to a third team. Wood is a $3 million expiring contract the Lakers could use for salary purposes.
The fun part is that the Hawks already control one of Lakers’ future first-round picks. They have the rights to the 2025 Lakers pick. Los Angeles has three tradeable picks, 2029, 2030, and 2031. They cannot trade picks in back-to-back seasons, so they can offer two picks the most, and a swap in 2030.
Will Young Help the Struggling Lakers?
Trae Young will certainly improve the shooting and playmaking of the Lakers. But the problem with that is they will lose 2 rotation players for one. And Young is already out with an injury. Then there is the defense problem. The Lakers biggest problem is their two guards are below-average defenders, which puts huge pressure on their bigs. Reaves and Russell cannot stand in front of anybody it seems lately. Trae Young is not exactly known for his defense, to be fair.
For the Lakers, help might come from the frontcourt. That is a recipe they know it works. On the recent episode of the Hoop Collective, Dave McMenamin mentioned that they might be more interested in trading for a big man. Anthony Davis has been privately vocal about how having Dwight Howard and JaVale McGee helped the Lakers win the 2020 title. Since then, they haven’t had a quality big to back-up Davis.
