{"id":62412,"date":"2024-01-29T10:00:31","date_gmt":"2024-01-29T15:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=62412"},"modified":"2024-01-28T16:20:34","modified_gmt":"2024-01-28T21:20:34","slug":"lakers-trade-max-christie-jalen-hood-schifino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/01\/29\/lakers-trade-max-christie-jalen-hood-schifino\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Rumors: Should the Lakers Trade These Two Young Guards?"},"content":{"rendered":"

All eyes have been on the Lakers when it comes to trade talks.\u00a0 The latest reports suggested <\/span>LA is prioritizing a move for<\/span><\/a> Dejounte Murray<\/span><\/a> in exchange for <\/span>D\u2019Angelo Russell<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>their 2029 first-round pick and a pick swap<\/span><\/a>. Those talks have stalled for now, in part because Atlanta is waiting for a better player than Russell to become available, or pushing LA to reroute him to a third team.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although the Lakers are considered frontrunners for Murray, they could also be outbid by other teams. In an effort to seriously set themselves apart\u2014from Murray and other prominent targets\u2014some have wondered if the Lakers are willing to move on from a couple of their other young players. In an effort to entice other teams while saving their draft capital, should the Lakers trade <\/span>Jalen Hood-Schifino<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Max Christie<\/span><\/a>?<\/span><\/p>\n

NBA Rumors: Should the Lakers Trade These Two Young Guards?<\/h2>\n

Background<\/b><\/h3>\n

Both players have developed between the Lakers and their G League affiliate. Christie, in particular, has received more opportunities of the two this season. In 37 games, the second-year guard put up 4.8 points, 2.6 rebounds and one assist per game on .405\/.321\/.800 splits. Hood-Schifino, the 17th pick of the 2023 Draft, has been recovering from injuries and has struggled in the league. However, he’s had a promising stint in the G League. In seven games with South Bay, he averaged 19 points and nearly five assists on 45% shooting from the field and 43% from three.<\/span><\/p>\n

Christie and JHS haven\u2019t been able to find their footing in the rotation, but they\u2019ve stayed ready and provided valuable minutes when the Lakers were dealing with multiple injuries. The reaction from Laker fans has been mixed, but they\u2019ve earned the trust of Darvin Ham, <\/span>LeBron James<\/b><\/a> and <\/span>Anthony Davis<\/b><\/a> over the course of the season. They\u2019ve also <\/span>turned heads around the league<\/span><\/a>, leading some teams to express interest in them ahead of the Feb. 8 deadline.<\/span><\/p>\n

Should the Lakers Trade Hood-Schifino or Christie?<\/b><\/h3>\n

When asked who has more trade value between the two, <\/span>The Athletic\u2019s Jovan Buha<\/span><\/a> pointed to <\/span>Christie<\/span><\/a> as the more valuable asset, but didn\u2019t discount Hood-Schifino\u2019s development as of late:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>My sense is Christie is more valuable because he\u2019s shown he can be a rotation-caliber wing \u2014 albeit one who still needs some seasoning \u2014 before the age of 21. Other teams are asking for Christie to be included in trade talks, but the Lakers have been reluctant to part with him.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Lakers still hold hope with Hood-Schifino\u2019s long-term development and he\u2019s been playing well in the G League, but has yet to flash his potential in <\/span>NBA<\/span> play. It doesn\u2019t help that the three players drafted directly behind him <\/span>\u2014<\/b>Miami<\/span>\u2019s <\/span>Jaime Jaquez Jr.<\/span>, <\/span>Golden State<\/span>\u2019s <\/span>Brandin Podziemski<\/span> and <\/span>Houston<\/span>\u2019s <\/span>Cam Whitmore<\/span> \u2014<\/b> have played so well this season. But the Lakers can\u2019t go back and redraft.<\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In terms of salaries, both players are on relatively similar contracts. Christie is in the final year of a two-year, $2.7 million deal. Hood-Schifino, on the other hand, is on a four-year rookie scale contract and making $3.7 million.<\/span><\/p>\n

Both would be valuable assets for teams who are looking for guard depth and wouldn\u2019t mind developing players who have flashed high upside in the past. Whether they\u2019re willing to take <\/span>one of them<\/span><\/a> as part of a major trade is a different story. Those teams would have to believe that receiving one or both of these players is better than waiting on a 2029 first-round pick. Based on what JHS and Christie have shown so far, that could very well be the case.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Case for Christie and JHS<\/b><\/h3>\n

Christie and Hood-Schifino are both dynamic two-way guards who can score, facilitate and defend well. They also had several impressive performances for Los Angeles and South Bay, respectively. Christie dropped 14 points (4\/8 FG, 1\/3 3PT, 5\/6 FT) as the Lakers fell to the Suns on Jan. 11. Meanwhile, Hood-Schifino dropped 19 points for South Bay on an efficient 7\/14 from the field on Jan. 18.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There is also a case for the Lakers to keep them. Christie has proven he can grow into a solid rotational contributor, and he flashed that potential in big performances earlier this year. It\u2019s also too early to give up on Hood-Schifino only half a season into his NBA career. Even if they\u2019re not getting minutes, they\u2019re relishing the opportunities to learn from stars and other established veterans.<\/span><\/p>\n

Still, the league is a business, and both of these players deserve to thrive in the Association. The Lakers\u2014aside from their track record of excellent player development\u2014may not be the place for either of them beyond the deadline. It makes sense if other teams show interest in Christie or JHS in the coming weeks. The Lakers should at least consider moving them instead of the very few first-round picks they have left.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All eyes have been on the Lakers when it comes to trade talks.\u00a0 The latest reports suggested LA is prioritizing a move for Dejounte Murray in exchange for D\u2019Angelo Russell, their 2029 first-round pick and a pick swap. Those talks have stalled for now, in part because Atlanta is waiting for a better player than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4265,"featured_media":62419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,26,62,4721],"tags":[240,307,1262,4907,38,4916],"class_list":["post-62412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-lakers","category-nba","category-trade-rumors","tag-anthony-davis","tag-dangelo-russell","tag-dejounte-murray","tag-jalen-hood-schifino","tag-lebron-james","tag-max-christie"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}