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With the Los Angeles Lakers having a new head coach in place, the focus of the offseason will now switch to the roster. While the team had three superstars this season in LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook, they may have had the most poorly put together roster in the NBA. Instead of surrounding the veteran stars with young and athletic shooters who can defend, they signed aging former stars who are long past their prime.
The Lakers have a lot of work to do this offseason and most of the focus has been on possible trades for Westbrook. However, there are those who believe that Davis should be a trade candidate. The eight-time All-star is coming off back-to-back lackluster seasons after looking like one of the five best players in the NBA during his first year in Los Angeles.
His trade value is likely at an all-time low so trading him now doesn’t make any sense unless the Lakers believe that things will only get worse from here. The Utah Jazz are a team that needs to shake things up. Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell don’t get along so it would be smart to break them up. Eric Walden of The Salt Lake Tribune pitched a trade that would send Davis to Utah for Gobert and a 2026 first-round pick.
“There are not a ton of viable options on L.A.’s roster, so let’s swap out the teams’ respective centers,” Walden wrote. “Davis’ injury history makes this more plausible. Utah gets the younger and more talented all-around guy, so it also sends out a future first.”
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This Would Be a Terrible Trade for the Lakers
Gobert is a good player and has won Defensive Player of the Year three times. He’s one of the best defensive players in the NBA and has made three straight All-Star games. That said, swapping Davis for him would be a massive mistake. The two players aren’t on the same level.
Gobert is coming off one of his best years and he averaged 15.6 points a game. Davis is coming off one of his worst seasons and averaged 23.2 points a game. Also, Davis is every bit as good of a defender as Gobert. In 2020, he finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting. When healthy, Davis is a significantly better player and it’s not close.
Perhaps a Trade Surrounding Mitchell Would Be Better
There’s a 0% chance the Lakers are trading Davis for Gobert and a first-round pick, especially considering how much it took to get him from the New Orleans Pelicans. If the Jazz want Davis, they’d have to start by offering Mitchell. That’s a player the Lakers could be interested in. He’s made three straight All-Star teams, is only 25 and averages 23.9 points a game over his career.
At his best, Davis is still a better player than Mitchell but the gap is smaller than the one between Gobert and him. Mitchell and LeBron could make a solid duo if the Lakers could get off Westbrook. It’s unlikely to happen but a package surrounding the young guard would be one of the better Davis trades they could make.
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