The Lakers wanted — no, needed — to switch things up after a disappointing 2022 season. Could acquiring Patrick Beverley be the trade that puts them over the top?
Clearly, Beverley cannot be the only move Los Angeles makes if they hope to contend with the likes of the Golden State Warriors out West.
The conference is loaded with contenders, with the Lakers trying to make the most of LeBron James’ final years in the NBA.
James signed a new contract this offseason that all but cemented the fact he’ll retire as a Laker. With that commitment in mind, Rob Pelinka moved around some of the only assets the organization possessed to acquire Beverley — a savvy veteran guard who brings defensive tenacity and a winning mentality.
Lakers Get
PG, Patrick Beverley
Jazz Get
F, Talen Horton-Tucker
F, Stanley Johnson
The above deal was originally reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. Shams Charania of The Athletic reported the trade as agreed upon.
Los Angeles Lakers Trade Grades: B
Every Lakers fan wanted Kyrie Irving, but they didn’t take into account the unfortunate fact that they had no assets to trade away. Acquiring an All-Star like Irving was always going to cost multiple firsts, especially as the market for star players continues to increase — look no further than Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert and Kevin Durant.
Beverley isn’t perfect by any means, but he does give Los Angeles an edge and could help reestablish some of the team camaraderie that’s been missing since their NBA Title-winning season. Also, Pelinka didn’t have to trade draft picks for Beverley, which is an automatic win on his part.
Utah Jazz Trade Grades: C+
The Jazz got THT, who has been a long-coveted asset of the Lakers. However, he took a fairly obvious step back last season. Utah will hope he regains some of the promise most talent evaluators saw in him through the 2020 campaign.
Utah is tearing it down, but they have yet to trade away their best player in Mitchell, which is rather confusing. As of this writing, Mitchell has little to no help, while the Jazz are collecting draft picks on the fly. Except…in this deal they received none of those said picks to add to their war chest.
It just doesn’t make much sense in the grand scheme of things.