Los Angeles Lakers: 3 big questions heading into 2018-19 regular season
2. How active will the Lakers be with retooling their roster?
Something that has come up in plenty of the NBA mediums is whether the Los Angeles Lakers are truly done shaping this roster. With plenty of young talent, there’s potential for an opportunity to add a talented, win-now player to give them a greater chance for success in the postseason, or splurge for Kawhi Leonard if the Toronto Raptors are not contending as they hope.
The first month or two of the regular season will tell us if the Lakers need another big and/or better shooters. The big man concerns could be mitigated by playing LeBron James and Kyle Kuzma at the 5 for stretches, yet I’m not sure they could handle the pounding in the paint for a full season.
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The solution for this would be to stand pat with their roster and decline trades for their young pieces, opting to attack the buyout season that always comes up after the trade deadline. A trend that is commonplace in the NBA these days is to find serviceable talent without giving up assets when veterans are bought out from their contracts on teams falling out of the playoff race.
The Philadelphia 76ers filled out their playoff rotation with a pair of buyout players last season with Marco Belinelli and Ersan Ilyasova joining late in the season.
A solid rotational player like Dewayne Dedmon of the Atlanta Hawks is a prime candidate to be bought out from his expiring $6.3 million deal, and would come cheap for the Lakers while filling their biggest need. Dedmon doesn’t turn the Lakers into contenders, but he would essentially be free and wouldn’t come at the cost of losing a player.
The Lakers should use this route if they make any changes, but don’t be surprised if trade rumors swirl all season.