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There are numerous reports suggesting that personnel within the Sacramento Kings‘ organization are willing to trade DeMarcus Cousins, and the Los Angeles Lakers have been one of the NBA teams linked as a possible destination. It would certainly take a lot of assets for Los Angeles to satisfy Sacramento, and because of this, Cousins would fail to make the Lakers any more relevant than the team would be without trading for him.
In a possible deal, the Lakers would give up Jordan Clarkson, Julius Randle and the No. 2 overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft. Other than those three assets, it is almost impossible to find another piece that the Kings would want in return for Cousins, so a third team might be needed to facilitate this deal.
However, even if Los Angeles received Cousins in a trade, the Lakers would remain irrelevant in the Western Conference. For one, Kobe Bryant is nearing retirement, having only played in 41 games and shooting 37.8 percent from the field in the last two seasons combined. Beyond the assets needed for Sacramento to accept a trade for Cousins, Los Angeles has a depleted roster without much depth. Certainly, the Lakers will be looking to make a splash this summer in free agency, but it is unlikely that the team will be able to fill all of the gaping holes on the roster in such a short amount of time.
Furthermore, head coach Byron Scott has yet to embrace the evolving NBA game, making it even more difficult for the Lakers to be relevant next season. Over this past season, Scott’s team had only 18.9 three-point attempts per game, the sixth-lowest mark in the league. In today’s NBA, it is fairly easy to see that teams that shoot three-point field goals at a higher rate are more successful than teams that are cautious about shooting the ball from deep. In this year’s postseason, the final four teams remaining all ranked in the top seven in three-point attempts per game in the regular season.
Additionally, the Western Conference will be even better than last year, and Los Angeles is better off continuing to be patient in a rebuilding process instead of giving up the rest of their assets in a trade for Cousins.
Nicholas Sciria is a writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @Nick_Sciria, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.
