Lakers News: Pundit Pitches Trade With Tanking Eastern Conference Club

The February 9th trade deadline is right around the corner. Let's be real: your Los Angeles Lakers, as currently comprised, have no prayer at winning the 2023 NBA

title. We know that, and they know that. Well, at least LeBron James and Darvin Ham know that. The real question now is: are they going to do anything about

that? Rome wasn't built in a day, and a Lakers return to true title contention could also take more than one individual trade. It's unclear if Los Angeles ownership and

management is even committed to actually getting back to the heady championship contention space they occupied during the first two seasons of the LeBron James-Anthony Davis

partnership while that dynamic duo is still on the team (I still think they could have beaten the Phoenix Suns in the first round had Davis's body survived that

series). Greg Swartz of Bleacher Report proposes the first piece to this puzzle with an interesting deal for a long-rumored LA trade target: sharpshooting veteran Detroit

Pistons power forward Bojan Bogdanovic, an elite three-point marksman and jump shooter in general who could help open up the floor for Los Angeles.  Even though Bogdanovic's

$19.3 million contract lines up pretty nicely with the combined salaries of underperforming LA veteran guards Patrick Beverley and Kendrick Nunn ($18.3 million collectively),

Swartz is thinking bigger for LA. Swartz is considering a Russell Westbrook deal.