Getty Jalen Hood-Schifino warms up.
The focus of the Los Angeles Lakers offseason will be landing someone to pair with LeBron James and Anthony Davis. However, there are other marginal moves they could make. In a proposed trade from Zach Buckley of Bleacher Report, the Lakers would land Seth Curry and picks from the Charlotte Hornets for Jalen Hood-Schifino.
Lakers would get: Curry, No. 42 pick in 2024 NBA draft, and 2026 second-round pick
Hornets would get: Hood-Schifino
“Some team short on shooting like the Lakers could want a crack at Curry, who has converted 43.1 percent of his career three-point attempts,” Buckley wrote on May 29. “They might also covet these two second-rounders to help sweeten the pot for a bigger deal down the line, though they’d have to cut costs to sneak below the first apron to make this move possible.
“If that’s all it takes for the Hornets to get Hood-Schifino, whom the Lakers drafted with the No. 17 overall pick last year, they should pounce. He barely hit the NBA hardwood as a rookie, but he still has a sky-high ceiling given his positional size, playmaking and ability to create out of the pick-and-roll.”
Hood-Schifino could end up being a part of the Lakers’ future, but in a window to win now with James and Davis, adding a veteran like Curry could be the better decision.
Los Angeles Lakers Need Three-Point Shooting
The idea of adding Curry would be to give the Los Angeles Lakers a three-point shooter who can get shots up at an efficient rate. During the 2023-24 season, the Lakers made just 11.7 threes per game, ranking them in the bottom seven in the NBA.
While they shot it well from beyond the arc, shooting 37.6% as a team, they attempted just 31.0 attempts per game, which was the fewest in the entire NBA.
Three-point shooting is as important as ever in the NBA. The Boston Celtics have clinched their ticket to the NBA Finals and they shot the most three-point attempts in the NBA this year. The Dallas Mavericks, who need to win one more game to meet the Celtics, took the second most.
Three-point shooting was a clear need for the Lakers last season and Curry gives them just that.
How Seth Curry Would Help the Lakers
Curry has been all over the league for much of his career. He only played in eight games for the Charlotte Hornets after being dealt to Charlotte from the Dallas Mavericks.
He was dealing with a right ankle sprain that kept him out. However, he played in 35 games for the Mavericks and played 13.1 minutes per game. That comes after a season where he played in 61 games and 19.9 minutes for the Brooklyn Nets.
When Curry’s at his best, he’s shooting the three-point shot at a high rate. In his career which started in the 2013-14 season, Curry has shot 43.1% from three-point range.
He’d likely come off the bench for the Los Angeles Lakers if they have a good offseason, but there’s still value there with Curry. If the Lakers could land that third star with Davis and James, he could find himself getting open shots whenever he runs with the first unit.