Getty Austin Reaves #15 of the Los Angeles Lakers is defended by Damian Lillard #0 of the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Los Angeles Lakers appear to have struck out in free agency, but the trade market is open for the next several months.
Los Angeles has D’Angelo Russell and his $18.7 million salary and a couple of first-round picks in 2029 and 2031 around which it can build a deal for a high-impact player.
Greg Swartz of Bleacher Report on Wednesday, July 3, authored a complicated proposal between the Lakers, Cleveland Cavaliers and Brooklyn Nets that would land L.A. two players from a Cavs’ roster that made it to the Eastern Conference Semifinals in the most recent postseason: point guard Darius Garland and wing Caris LeVert.
The Cavaliers would acquire guard Austin Reaves and forward Rui Hachimura from Los Angeles, as well as forward Cam Johnson from Brooklyn. The Nets, meanwhile, would bring back Russell, shooting guard Jalen Hood-Schifino and big man Christian Wood from the Lakers along with L.A.’s first-round pick in 2029.
Darius Garland Would Assume Role as Third Lakers Star Alongside LeBron James, Anthony Davis
GettyDarius Garland of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The pitch costs Los Angeles five players and a first-round pick, which is a lot to give up for Garland and LeVert. However, upon closer inspection it doesn’t hurt L.A. quite so bad as one might think.
The loss of Reaves is the one true backbreaker given his status as arguably the third-best player on the Lakers’ current roster and the exceptional value of the four-year, $54 million contract on which he will play through at least 2025-26 before a player option on the deal’s final season. Los Angeles would surely be loathe to part with Reaves, only 26 years old, so early in his career at such a team-friendly price.
Swartz, however, attempted to make the argument that the juice on this particular trade proposal would be worth the squeeze given Garland’s value as a former All-Star whose talents Cleveland mitigated two seasons past when it acquired Donovan Mitchell in its own trade with the Utah Jazz.
“Garland is the ideal candidate to take over [the Lakers’] point guard duties,” Swartz wrote. “Agent Rich Paul should be thrilled to have Garland move to Los Angeles and team up with fellow clients in [Lebron] James and [Anthony] Davis, giving the Lakers an additional scorer and facilitator to ease the burden on a soon-to-be 40-year-old James. … The move would also shed $2.2 million off LA’s books, important for a team that [the league currently projects] to be $1.2 million over the second apron luxury tax line.”
Darius Garland Represents Possible Upgrade for Lakers Over Austin Reaves
GettyAustin Reaves of the Los Angeles Lakers.
As good as Reaves has been for the Lakers over the past couple of years, Garland has shown a significantly higher NBA ceiling.
Garland became an All-Star during the 2021-22 campaign, averaging 21.7 points, 8.6 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game, all of which were career-highs according to Basketball Reference. Those figures have all dipped in the two years since. However, Garland’s drop in production coincided with Mitchell’s arrival in Cleveland’s backcourt. A broken jaw also exacerbated Garland’s decline last season, as the point guard missed 25 regular-season games.
Reaves averaged career highs of 15.9 points, 5.5 assists and 4.3 rebounds across 82 appearances with L.A. last season, but he has never scored like Garland or been a playmaker on the Cleveland guard’s level during his three-year NBA tenure.
Garland, 24, is younger than Reaves and has a higher career usage rate (25.4%) than does his Lakers counterpart (17.1%). As such, Garland can take more ball-handling and playmaking duties off of James’ plate during the slog that is the regular season. He also shoots better from behind the 3-point line (38.4% on 5.8 attempts per game) than does Reaves (36.5% on 3.9 attempts per contest).
All that said, Garland also costs significantly more than Reaves, as he is playing on five-year deal worth $197.2 million in total that will keep him under contract through the 2027-28 campaign.
Lakers Could Stand to Lose Rui Hachimura in Trade for Darius Garland, Caris LeVert
GettyRui Hachimura of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Hachimura would not be an insignificant loss for the Lakers as part of the outgoing package in Swartz’s trade proposal, but his inclusion probably wouldn’t be a dealbreaker either.
The 6-foot-8 power forward started 39 of the 68 games he appeared in last season following an exceptional playoff performance against the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals the year before, in which he averaged 15.3 points, 3.8 rebounds and played quality defense against the now three-time league MVP Nikola Jokic.
Hachimura’s departure would cost L.A. some length on its interior defense, though the addition of LeVert would replace that with above-average wing defense, which the Lakers could also use. The 6-foot-6 LeVert doesn’t shoot the 3-ball as well as Hachimura does, but he did produce 14 points, 5.1 assists, 4.1 rebounds and 1.1 steals per contest for the Cavaliers in 2023-24.
The Nuggets ushered the Lakers out of the playoffs in each of the past two postseasons in four and five games, respectively. In other words, the current construction of L.A.’s roster has a ceiling and it isn’t the NBA Finals.
In the end, making wholesale changes for the incremental upgrade that Garland represents probably isn’t enough to put the Lakers over the top in a stacked Western Conference. But if it gets them any closer, it’s worth serious consideration.