The new look Los Angeles Lakers are a work in progress after making two big trades ahead of the deadline to acquire Dorian Finney-Smith and Luka Doncic. Those moves should help them significantly going forward but have left them thin at key positions.
The most obvious is at center. With no Anthony Davis, the Lakers tried to trade for Mark Williams only to later rescind that deal and look elsewhere to fill out their frontcourt rotation. Another area of need is at guard.
After trading D'Angelo Russell and Max Christie, they are a bit thin at guard, even with Doncic, Austin Reeves, Gabe Vincent, and Dalton Knecht. If another guard became available on the free agent market, they would likely be interested, especially if it was the future Hall of Famer.
How the Los Angeles Lakers could land a future Hall of Famer.
Chris Paul is currently playing for the San Antonio Spurs. However, after the season-ending injury to Victor Wembanyama, they could go in a different direction and look to tank to secure a top-10 pick to help build around Wembanyama going forward. That direction could also include coming to a mutual agreement to waive Paul, allowing the future Hall of Famer to sign with a contender ahead of the playoffs.
If that were to happen, then that could pave the way for Paul to finally join the Lakers. That would be incredibly ironic with Paul previously having been traded to the Lakers back in 2012 only for the trade to be vetoed by the league. That set up another trade to send him to the L.A. Clippers.
The fact that Paul was in his late 20s then and is still playing more than a dozen years later is proof of how good he's been. At 40 years old, he has started all 54 games for the Spurs and ranks seventh in the NBA in assists per game.
He would be an upgrade over Gabe Vincent and more consistent than Knecht, giving the Lakers more depth at guard. It would also give him a chance to finally win a championship and give Lakers fans closure, with them likely still upset over the vetoed trade.
Better still, he likely would only cost them the vet minimum with San Antonio waiving him, allowing him to keep his full $11 million salary while being free to sign wherever he chooses. If that ends up being the case, then the Lakers could sign a future Hall of Famer in Paul for cheap.