This season, Patrick Beverly has lakers There has long been a need around LeBron James as a 3-and-D point guard with enough cockiness to hold the stars around him accountable. But what happened early in the season was Beverly’s underperformance, unable to make an impact on both ends of the court.
It’s still pretty young this year, but so far it’s been a disappointing campaign for those whose contributions were expected.Think Lakers Taren Horton Tucker traded one of their few assets this offseasonwhich makes his disappointing play even more frustrating.
If you’re looking for more reason to get annoyed, ESPN’s Dave McMenamin provided more ammunition soon. Also on his weekly podcast on ESPN where he discusses the Lakers and the Clippers with Ohm Youngmisuk, McMenamin details that he didn’t make a deal involving THT before the Lakers pulled the trigger on PatBev last season. (h/t OVOLakeShow/Twitter).
“The Lakers toronto raptors When the Raptors seemed like the Lakers were probably out of it late last year, or at least they were seeded lower and there was no chance of a full championship road ahead, the Raptors would Taren Horton Tucker and Trade. Traded a first-round pick. please think about it. The Lakers had another first round pick of him in addition to his two current first round picks to better this team. It was Kem Birch, so they would have made some money there and Birch probably wouldn’t be the best rotator for this group, but that first round pick is very valuable and it That’s why they’re so stuck in what they can pursue right now.
Now, the notable part of this is, and should be, the Lakers denying first round picks. In hindsight, the Khem Birch deal looks much easier to swallow.
Note that no matter how small PatBev’s offering this year, Birch’s offering is small. He played just 7 games this year and played a total of 48 minutes. Despite being a center, he has about as many fouls (12) as points (13) and fewer rebounds (7) than both. He doesn’t provide spacing as a shooter and is basically irrelevant to the Raptors right now.
All that happens despite him being paid $6.6 million this season and $6.9 million next season. The counter-argument is that if the Lakers make a trade to improve and use those draft picks this season, considering how few non-maximum contracts the team has, Birch will almost certainly make that trade. would have been a salary.
Perhaps the Lakers felt they could get a better trade package in the offseason, or maybe they just didn’t realize the long-term money Burch was going to pay. The sentiment the front office reportedly had All the while looking for Russell Westbrook trades, it’s fair to assume that’s the case with other trades as well.
But man. Having an extra first round pick in the bag is like the difference between whether this team has the likes of Buddy Hield or Myles Turner on the roster, or at least other trades. I feel. There is a possibility.
Mark this as another asset the Lakers have mismanaged in recent years.
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