The Los Angeles Lakers are looking great now with LeBron James. They are now 17-11 standing as the 5th seed in the Western Conference. This wasn’t a surprise for me. I know LeBron James can elevate the game of his team mates and make them better. And that’s the reason why they are now contenders immediately by just signing the best player in the world. Many people thought that the Lakers will still be at the bottom of the Western Conference even after they added LeBron James and some basketball legends even said that the Lakers will not make the playoffs and LeBron will not be able to carry them. Look at the Lakers now, they are in the right direction and just few pieces away from dominating the West.
There are a lot of good players in the Lakers roster but they are almost all young. Lakers needs more reliable shooters and a great perimeter defender. Trevor Ariza is a perfect fit for the Lakers in my opinion. Ariza could make the Lakers even better. His 3 and D expertise can help the Lakers big time and his experience in the playoffs can help him mentor the young guys long term. According to Adrian Wojnarowski, the Lakers are in trade talks with the Phoenix Suns to acquire Ariza and they are trying to find a third team to be included in the deal.
The questions are, who's gonna be included in the trade for the Lakers? Will they wait until December 15 to make a better trade option? The veteran players they signed in free agency last summer will be eligible to be traded until December 15 and the Lakers will have more options and more choices of players to be included in the deal if they waited until that date.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is the best asset they can give if they decided to trade for Ariza now and his 1-year 12 million dollars contract is a much realistic trade fit with Ariza's contract. Caldwell-Pope is a great shooter and a nice defensive player but limited minutes held him back and decreased his production. His playing time decreased because of Josh Hart's great performance and fast development. Lakers are relying more on Hart because he can score at a high percentage in transition and that is very useful for the Lakers. He can also shoot from the outside and can also defend well. Maybe, this will be the best offer they can give to Phoenix. I sure they will not include any of their young players in this trade.
If the deal was finalized and Phoenix and the Lakers find a third team to seal the deal, there's one more problem that they have to deal with. Caldwell-Pope has a no trade clause in his contract and if he did not waive his no trade clause, the deal can't be made.
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