The Lakers Actually Pulled Off A Smart Trade By Bringing In Patrick Beverley For Basically Nothing, Even If It Means Him And Russell Westbrook Are Teammates (For Now)

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It brings me a great amount of pain to type the following sentence. I would just like that on record that I am able to rise above that for the love of the blogging game. 

I really like this trade for the Lakers. It's smart and it makes them better.

Now, if you could excuse me for a second

Ok I'm back.

While it's still weird for me to accept that Danny Ainge did business with the Lakers, it's hard to argue against this trade for either side really. With no picks being involved meaning the Lakers still own their 2027 and 2029 1st round picks, dare I say this was a homerun for them? 

Let's be honest, once it became clear that the Lakers were not going to be able to trade for Kyrie Irving, they needed to do something. LeBron signed his extension and demanded that they make roster adjustments to make the team better, which this does. As much as Lakers fans have spent the last few years hyping up THT like he's an actual good player, they didn't give up shit for a player that they can slide in as a Day 1 starter in Pat Bev. The Lakers had the 21st ranked defense last season so it's not like they didn't need help on that end, but for those who have watched Pat Bev recently you know he's more than just a pretty damn good on ball defender. He's a career 37.8% three point shooter and dating back to 2017-18 he's finished at 40%, 39.7%, 38.8%, 39.7% and then 34.5% last year. Given the fact that the Lakers need defense AND shooting, you can see why they were interested in this deal

Plus, now we get to potentially have both Beverley and Westbrook in the same backcourt which is bound to give us several moments where they want to murder each other. How could we forget this classic Westbrook rant about Beverley.

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Or when Pat Bev trolled the LeBron and Westbrook this past season

So either this is going to end in disaster or this is the precursor to a larger Westbrook trade that could be coming any minute. It's not like this is a long term commitment for LA seeing as how Beverley is an expiring $13M deal so it helps them immediately in the short term and didn't require any picks or long term commitment.

For the Jazz side, as we know they are in the business of tanking. Having good players on their roster right now is not what they should be doing, so this makes sense for them too. Maybe THT turns into something in a situation where there's no pressure, because lets face it, he can't get any worse

and he's the exact type of gamble a rebuilding team should take. A young cost controlled asset that might thrive in a new situation, maybe with a bigger role. Stanley Johnson gives them some wing depth after they traded Royce O'Neale, and he's an expiring deal as well so it opens up more cap space for the future. I'm actually a little surprised that Ainge didn't demand at least a 2nd round pick or something but it's not the end of the world. I think most people figured once he got that haul from MIN that he wouldn't be keeping all that NBA ready talent. I don't think it should surprise anyone if we also see Malik Beasley moved at some point as well. It's just weird seeing Ainge participate a trade in which he didn't completely rip off the other team. I didn't know he could even do that. Normally he just walks away if he's not going to be the overwhelming winner but I guess there's a first time for everything.

When it comes to what this means for the Lakers and their chances, let's not get crazy. It makes them better for sure, but everything will of course come down to how healthy AD/LeBron are and if Westbrook can find a way to not have a completely disastrous season if he's still on the roster. At the very least Beverley brings some much needed intensity and he has a skillset the Lakers roster needs, not to mention he's basically only made the playoffs since he entered the NBA. Given that the Lakers were just in the Lottery, it can't hurt adding a guy like that.

OK, that's enough positive things from me about the Lakers. I think I need to shower. I feel gross.