FIRST TAKE | “Lakers should consider trading LeBron” – Perkins breaks down state of the Lakers trade

FIRST TAKE | “Lakers should consider trading LeBron” – Perkins breaks down state of the Lakers trade

We’re just under a month away from the February 8th trade deadline but things could start heating up starting on January 15th that is when 96% of players will be eligible to be traded and now with an NBA forecast look who’s here let’s ABS not talk about the weather in

The Midwest and the East Coast let’s focus out here Malika we’re going to start in Golden State we have drought-like conditions very very few splashes Dr Draymond Green’s been out that means Steph Curry has ly not been at his best look at how his numbers have come down since Draymond Green

Suspension look these are still good numbers but these are MVP level numbers they need to get back to that yes they’re going to be active in the trade market but the best acquisition they can make is getting Draymond Green back let’s come down the coast to La oh

Malika there’s a high pressure system parked over Southern California because the LA Lakers are under 500 they have played 39 games LeBron and AD have missed a total of five that is bad news starting on Monday their whole roster is available for trade including Austin Reeves and Ru hachimura and I expect the

Lakers to get involved in trade talks looking to upgrade their roster especially if they could add a ball handler because since d’angel Russell’s gone out of the starting lineup LeBron’s become the starting point guard and his production has gone down but it’s not all bad news let’s go over to the desert

Where we had some lovely clouds blocking out the Sun but guess what it’s cleared it’s Sunny the Suns had their best performance of the season last night against the Lakers Bradley Beal 37 points hits eight three-pointers they are on the right track I know that their record isn’t great but they’re healthy

They’re playing better they have good energy with their team I don’t think the Suns have even begun to play their best basketball yet and now almost halfway in the season I think you’re going to start to see it and now to Kendrick Perkins with sports I I’m mostly I’m mostly joking

But but I I am curious Wendy if we could invite you in your weather forecast back here to the desk that was excellent by the way I appreciate that we’re going to have to get you yeah we’re going to have to get you a green screen next time W

How can the Lakers change the forecast that Wendy so perfectly laid out there well and you go through those three teams Phoenix LA s and Golden State I think especially the Lakers and Phoenix they are limited in the assets that they have to put in trades and every time you

Do a deal you are sort of betting against your future and you’re taking more and more from down the road this is a Laker team that obviously because you have LeBron James at 39 because Anthony Davis is still playing both of them are at such a high level they need to

Improve that Supporting Cast they need more quickness athleticism I think for the Lakers their Moment of Truth at this trade deadline is going to be their willingness to put Austin Reeves in a deal they’re not going to want to trade them they don’t want to trade them but

Outside of that 2029 first round pick they have he’s the only other Real Player on the roster that I think gets you back a significant upgrade that’s what it’s going to come down to for this Laker team they’ve touched base on Deon Murray in Atlanta as have a lot of teams

Uh and I think those conversations you know they they may develop over time uh but this is a Laker team that is limited in scope and and how dramatic of an impact they could really make yeah they are limited and they they do need another play making a ball handler they

Have to get faster at the perimeter we still haven’t seen gay Vincent right we only seen the appetizer of him but they also got to increase their depth at the big position Jack Jackson Hayes has been a complete failure this season right I thought he was going to come in get up

Under this LeBron James like system and wing and started to really develop and grow as a player but I’m looking at it maybe you search to buy a market like a bism bio right and come in and cuz he played some good quality minutes for Memphis this season right take a load

Off of AD and spot minutes but again whatever the Lakers do is not going to get them over the hump to compete for a title right it’s just going to make a strong playoff push and then all of a sudden we going to be asking the same

Question again is it is LeBron retiring your phone is going to light up with a 330 area code after saying that with LeBron James on the I got them blocked I got them blocked well yeah I got them blocked I wouldn’t R anything out with LeBron but obviously they have to get

Better one thing that’s important when D’Angelo Russell signed this off season he had the opt to structure his contract in a way where he could have veto power on trades the Lakers negotiated in a way they gave him a little bit extra money he took that veto power away so he

Doesn’t have to approve a trade they can move him so I think that’s a player he may not be the most desirable Laker but he’s a guy that I think could be used in trade especially if they include Austin Reeves that first round draft pick with them yeah you know people have brought

Up Zack LaVine and it’s just not a trade for the Lakers if you’re going to take on that much salary with a third star with a new economic system in the NBA you’re going to want to do it with a two-way player a and I think Zack lavine’s certainly he is an outstanding

Offensive player I don’t know that Zack lavine’s going to get moved before the trade deadline uh I think a lot of the Lakers moves it’s going to look a little bit like last year’s trade deadline where you’re going to try to thread the knel there there’s not a savior coming

In for this Lakers season I don’t know if that player will be available at all at this trade deadline I just think when when when you the thread to the needle from last year I think Lakers fans years probably perk up because then they went on this magical run afterward words that

They were able to make it all the way to the Western Conference finals and it’s hard to decipher whether or not that that was Fool’s Gold uh I don’t believe it was I just think they capitalized on the moment but but here’s the thing right it’s it’s it’s so crazy how much

Like no one values Zack LaVine no more this is a guy couple years ago that averaged Val his contract per contract it’s not Zach the player it’s it’s Zach’s contract I understand but do do we realize in like two years guys ago be making about $75 million yeah but what

About between now and then what about those two years between now and then I mean there’s there’s a salary cap and the salary Cap’s changed and it’s making teams make harder decisions that’s why the Clippers are not did not give a Max extension to Kawhi Leonard and and while

They’re going to try to get Paul George at an even lower number it is a different day for 30-some NBA stars the automatic Max that used to be there isn’t there anymore yeah but we are talking about the Lakers one of the most winning fr franchises in NBA and they

Have to play by the same rules as everybody else all right a happy January 12th hopefully everyone is doing great out there uh we are going to do a video there are no breaking news there’s no trades to report uh but we’re going to try to get out in front of things here

And do something a little bit different that we haven’t done in the past usually we do these videos about when a trade happens we kind of give you the financial landscape and how it impacts the team but we’re going to kind of flip the switch flip the switch a little bit

Here as far as we’ve got our the annual trade guides coming out the week of January 22nd um it is Eastern and Western Conference guides um it is highly comprehensive uh I’ve got 28 out of the 30 teams written I think we’ve got about 10,000 words each conference

Um and certainly things can change from now until um until that week here um so I figured why don’t we do um and I don’t know if we’re going to be able to get to all 30 teams by February 8th some are some could be 3 minute videos uh we’re

Going to do the Lakers right now which could be a 10-minute video um and really just kind of go through the each team and how we we shape the trade guides um is that we kind of focus on what to watch um we go into you know front

Office history uh the trade we’d like to see um we added that twist last year and it’s really the trade we like to see is not a trade that’s going to get clicks um because if we’re throwing out names um that are unrealistic really the trades we’ like to see is something that

Maybe makes sense maybe make sense towards the roster could be something extremely minor um uh and we go through salary draft basically everything everyone who’s been reading my stuff you kind of the gist as far as what we’re going to um uh what we’re going to have

Out there so we’re going to do a Laker video here this will be video one we’ll call it and we’ll see who video um two will be um next week here and and a big reason why I wanted to do the Lakers certainly the loss to Phoenix um you

Know got me going a little bit here because we’ve got um January 15th which is Monday uh there’s a group of 18 players that can now be will be able to be traded that means 96% of the NBA is trade eligible uh two of those players

Is uh ruie hamura and Austin Reeves um I I keep on seeing um bad info out there that d’angel Russell is one of those players he’s not um the reason why players have a January 15th trade restriction is that if they signed a contract for greater than 120% of their

Salary from the prior year um uh without cap space then they have a January 15th R date Russell did not uh Russell’s contract is actually low than what his contract last year with um was with the uh with the Lakers here he was eligible to be traded on uh December 15th so uh

Haimura and Reeves are part of that group of 18 players on January 15th we’re not going to go into the whole list because this video is about the Lakers as far as we call it the trade meter uh we give it a 1 to 10 scale 10

Certainly be the highest um I would put the Lakers trade meter somewhere in that seven to eight range now it’s important to remember out of the group of uh of players on this roster since last December uh Lebron James Anthony Davis Austin Reeves Max Chrissy there’s been a

Complete turnover from the hamura trade in January to the Russell trade in um in February to what the Lakers were able to do this off season um you basically have 11 new faces um you have um you know you went from the playing to Conference

Finals to back to a playing Team here so there has been a massive um roster turnover I mean the offense continually sits in the bottom 10 and that is something that’s going to have to get addressed at the uh closer to the trade deadline maybe it gets closer to next

Week here so we will see so the person really to what to watch and we usually pick a player or or um owner we’ve done owners we’re doing that with Charlotte um is really Rob pinkin and listen I um I went on national TV this summer uh

When free agency started and I’m not going to start backtracking on um what my thoughts were on the Lakers offseason I said they had they had a great offseason I gave them an A and I really did think they did and I still think they did based on the circumstances here

You know you lose in a Western Conference Finals you basically had the choice of um of basically trying to just tear it down and go out and use $30 million in cap space and go in that direction and add one player and and be like you were before when you had

Westbrook you’re topheavy I like the balance approach when you know with you have got um you know you’ve got besides James and Davis everybody on your player is making between 1.1 and $17 million you’ve got all these tradable contracts now to go out and make another move you go out and

Get a $30 million player now you’re like Phoenix right now you just basically have minimum players so I I like what the Lakers did this offseason I um I like that then I still like it now I know the the results are not there but now this gives them an opportunity to go

Out and make deals that wouldn’t have been presented to themselves if they went out and maybe cleared cap space and got Kyrie Irving for example just a hypothetical there to go out and sign that player here so I still like what they were able to do um the the two

Things on how they turn the season around okay um and I just kind of skipped over to Lakers patience which uh in this day and age of uh of the NBA um we don’t there’s not much patience right we want we want win now we want or or um results oriented

Business right Western Conference Finals um 19 and 20 were the record is outside of the um outside of the planing uh we want we want to turn over this roster once again so what is the patience level um when it comes to in Lake your land

Here um is there enough body of work in the first you know 41 games here um that requires Rob plink to go out and make another change I think I think we do see a little bit of a body of work um certainly you would have loved to seen

Gabe Vincent out there and there’s been injuries to hachimura and Jared Vanderbilt here but the offense continuously sits in the bottom 10 in the uh in the NBA lack of foot speed um lack of guys ability to make shots um athleticism I think that’s certainly a

Big u a big concern here now everybody’s GNA want to hear talk about Zack LaVine here I don’t see a Zack LaVine deal realistic just from the Lakers perspective because you basically get back to the situation where you were with Westbrook where you would have three players on $40 million plus

Contracts and it would cost you to go out and make uh trade three or four players it would cost um Russell hachimura um you the numbers it basically takes a gut job to do it um plus the Lakers are about $4.9 million under the hard cap so it makes it

Extremely difficult to kind of stay under there you know do that three or four for one deal then you have to fill out whatever roster spots you have that presents a challenge this new collective bargaining agreement is going to teams make teams highly hesitant to go out and

Add a third max player if he um if you know if he’s not a all NBA or top tier player think Zack LaVine is a good player but he’s not a top tier player outside of the top 20 borderline player when he’s a healthy he’s owed 138

Million after this year that’s a lot of money to come in in in take guys making that 20 to$ 22 million range salaries right now have more value than max players that’s the reality of it uh I did a podcast with Mike Scot from Hoops hype we talked about it uh myself and

Tim bontemps have an article coming out in the near future kind of giving you a little bit of the land ape of this new collective bargaining agreement that is going to have a lot of teeth for these teams that are in the first and second apron and the Lakers are nearing that

Direction here uh 178 million $179 million in salary here so I don’t see a a Zack LaVine type deal just doesn’t make sense um from the perspective of the Lakers now the counterargument to that right there’s always you know there’s always a counterargument with which is fair we live in a great country

And we can debate all we want is you could say well wait a minute Bobby the Lakers are could be a second a team helloo for spee wow spee for spe foree spee hope Joy spee fore s back for Fore fore fore speee fore foree will fore fore spee speee fore speech fore

Foree speech Spee hello for speech foreign fore wow for Fore Speee hope for speech foreign spee for spee spee speech foree for foree Fore Spee foree spee foreign spee foree for foree spe bye

FIRST TAKE | “Lakers should consider trading LeBron” – Perkins breaks down state of the Lakers trade