Los Angeles Lakers
Welp.
Originally I had, of course, Lonzo Ball in this spot, but then Anthony Davis went and screwed everything up.
The question now isn’t what do the Los Angeles Lakers have that the Phoenix Suns want, but what do the Suns have that the LeBron James needs.
The key here though is that while the Lakers and Suns could technically consummate a trade on draft day, since the Lakers have no pieces to move at the moment, the deal couldn’t come into effect until July – which might be as far away as July 30 if they can get a number of agreements in place to then have about $32.5 million under the cap.
This proposed “draft day” trade will be based off of their not wanting to wait that long to officially sign A.D. and while they’ll wait until July 6, they’ll take on T.J. Warren in a basic salary dump.
Phoenix and L.A. could swap 2020 second round picks, then the Lakers will send their 2025 unprotected first round pick (that will move to 2026, if their 2024 first round pick is deferred to 2025 in the Davis deal – it’s complicated, but it is explained in the link above), to complete the deal.
The Suns will have salary cap space to play with this offseason and can use the loss of Warren’s $10.81 million this coming season to hopefully go after a player like Tobias Harris in free agency.