The LA Lakers have a young core to develop and a couple of veteran mentors in Luol Deng and presumably Timofey Mozgov.
How far can they go with just the young core at the helm? That is the big question in Tinseltown for this season. Are D'Angelo Russell, Julius Randle, Jordan Clarkson and Brandon Ingram good enough to build a playoff team?
There is a constant debate among Laker fans on whether they should make a trade to make them better in the short term or ride out the next season (or two) and see how far this young group can go.
At the backdrop of this dilemma is the power struggle between siblings Jim and Jeanie Buss on who should run the team. David Aldridge of NBA.com noted that there seems to be a disconnect on when Jim's three-year deadline would end.
"Jim Buss, the team's executive VP of Basketball Operations -- and Jeanie's brother -- said in 2014 that if the Lakers weren't again contending for supremacy in the west in 'three to four years,' that he would resign. Jim Buss now says that time frame extends to the end of the 2017-18 season. But his sister has said that the deadline to once again be a factor in the playoffs is the 2016-17 season. As in, next season," Aldridge wrote.
Nevertheless, the pressure is there for Jim and that is probably what is fueling the trade rumors. Jim was probably hoping for a major free agent signing, but they failed to land any real game changer for the past three years.
Perhaps the best way to get better quickly is to trade for expiring contracts and sign them using Bird Rights. One possible target for that is Paul Millsap.
Millsap was shopped by the Hawks in a last ditch effort to keep Al Horford after the team signed Dwight Howard. The situation could turn awkward and Sports Illustrated team site Soaring Down South has proposed trading Millsap to the Lakers.
Millsap is due for a huge payday but that's no issue for the Lakers if they have the Bird Rights. Also, trading for Millsap, perhaps one of the 20 best players in the league last season, will propel them to become a fringe playoff team (or possibly beyond).
That would depend on the trade pieces that the Lakers would send back. The trade has to start with Julius Randle, the Lakers starting power forward whose position Millsap will take.
Ideally for the Hawks, they would take Brandon Ingram as well but the Lakers will definitely balk. Perhaps adding Jordan Clarkson would be reasonable but the Lakers would reason that Millsap is an expiring contract. From the Lakers side, it's possibly Randle and Lou Williams or Nick Young.
It is possible that both sides will consider this swap. For the Hawks, they face the possibility of losing Millsap and getting a young talent in return would be fair consolation.