The Los Angeles Lakers are exceeding expectations this season, leading to questions about their next move at the trade deadline. After a recent surge in performance, they are now viewed as potential contenders.
Forget good. The Lakers want to be great. That was coach JJ Redick’s halftime message Friday night to the Lakers , his frustration with the team’s lack of attention to defensive details boiling over first into a couple of rage-induced timeouts and later into a challenge to his group to be better.
The timing, which came with the Lakers leading a game they’d eventually win 119-102 against Atlanta, indicates something that’s been percolating behind the scenes over the last month, that the Lakers might actually be on to something worth investing in. Since the team moved Max Christie into the starting lineup on Dec. 8, the Lakers are 8-3. They’re sixth in the NBA in defensive efficiency during that stretch. Over the last seven games, their offense has awoken. And their acquisition of Dorian Finney-Smith, one of the premier role players available on the trade market, not only gives clues to the type of team they’re trying to build, but also cleared a runway for Austin Reaves to try to become the team’s third star. All of it has sort of uncluttered things for Redick, general manager and vice president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka and the organization. With a month until the NBA trade deadline and a favorable schedule, the next move has people around the league curious about what direction the Lakers will go in the build to the Feb. 6 trade deadline. Instead of frantically hunting for a third star or pushing chips in on a starting-caliber center, the Lakers, rival executives believe, will move in different ways than it might’ve seemed earlier this season. Christie has given the Lakers the kind of defensive speed and shooting they wanted in their backcourt, playing himself out of any marginal trade conversations. And the Lakers’ resistance to a third maximum-salary contract has only gone up since their failed Russell Westbrook experience, the constraints of the new salary-cap rules making that kind of roster construction more of an albatross than a luxur
LAKERS NBA TRADE DEADLINE Dorian Finney-Smith Max Christie
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