4 trades the Lakers can make after Rob Pelinka reveals all bets are off

Good relations between Lakers & Jazz lead to a second deal this year.

So far, Patrick Beverley is the most important addition to the Lakers since the offseason began. His acquisition was the first step in building enough rapport with Utah for the Lakers to ship Westbrook to Salt Lake City in exchange for two veteran perimeter players in Mike Conley and Malik Beasley.

This deal is a little bit different than the others in that the Lakers lose out on a lot of flexibility. Neither Conley nor Beasley is on an expiring contract, which means Los Angeles would effectively be locked into these players for two seasons without more assets to make deals. With that being the case, along with Conley’s injury history, the Lakers might try to convince Utah to swap some second-rounders in exchange for Westbrook and the firsts.

Already, Utah is on track to deploy a lineup of players that don’t have a cohesive identity together. Upgrading their future seconds into two more unprotected first-round picks for the war chest should be worth bringing Westbrook back. Furthermore, this team isn’t good enough to make the postseason but it’s also not bad enough to contend for top-three lottery odds, barring some hardcore tanking strategy that likely wouldn’t appeal to first-year head coach Will Hardy.

So by adding Westbrook to the lineup, Utah will effectively be bad enough to get a good pick in a great draft while shedding almost $50 million from Russ’ deal the next summer while nabbing some coveted first-rounders. Some level of appeal should be there for both sides.