Lakers’ Cam Reddish Trade Rate Increases

There has been a lot of pressure on the Los Angeles Lakers to make a trade this NBA season to upgrade the roster around LeBron James and Anthony Davis to help them become a playoff team again. Rob Pelinka has said he will do everything he can to make the team a winner, but the kind of trade they’ve been looking for has yet to materialize.

Los Angeles has been paired with a few different players, such as Myles Turner and Buddy Loved of the Indiana Pacers and Bojan Bogdanovic of the Detroit Pistons.

It could be argued that none of those trade targets would help the Lakers over the hump and it wouldn’t be worth parting with their last two remaining assets, a first round of 2027 and 2029.

Picking up a protected future pick in the first round is something they were willing to do, but teams look for unprotected picks in return. A pack of Patrick Beverley, Kendrick Nunn, and a future first-round pick won’t do much in the trading market.

LATEST NBA NEWS & TRADE RUMORS: Cam Reddish, New York Knicks & Los Angeles Lakers Updates

Recently another trading target has emerged for the team which should be cheaper to acquire. Cam Reddish of the New York Knicks is someone who was linked to the Lakers a few months ago and his name pops up again as they remain very intrigued by him.

“There are people within the organization who are very intrigued by New York Knicks forward Cam Reddish — a six-foot-tall, 23-year-old winger — who would give the Lakers size on the perimeter a huge need. He’s also a former lottery picker, the kind of recovery project the Lakers have had some success with this year with a player like Lonnie Walker IV.

League sources say the Knicks are looking for a protected first round pick for Reddish (they sent one to Atlanta in the deal to acquire him – and the Hawks then used it in their trade for Dejounte Murray). Reddish is not currently in the Knicks rotation, so the asking price is expected to drop eventually.

LATEST NBA NEWS & TRADE RUMORS: Cam Reddish, New York Knicks & Los Angeles Lakers Updates

Reddish was removed from the rotation after the Knicks put in an embarrassing performance against the Dallas Mavericks on December 3. The rotation change by Tom Thibodeau, which also saw Derrick Rose lose his minutes, led to an eight-game winning streak that probably saved some people their jobs.

When he was in the lineup, Reddish showed the tantalizing potential he has. He has the resources to be a great defender with his combinations of height and athleticism, but his locomotion is somewhat inconsistent. Offensively, he showed that he was one of the few players on the roster who could reach the edge and finish with consistency.

LATEST NBA NEWS & TRADE RUMORS: Cam Reddish, New York Knicks & Los Angeles Lakers Updates

A bigger role and more playing time were what he originally cited as his reason for filing for a trade with the Atlanta Hawks. The Knicks acquired him and he ended up in an even more difficult situation to get minutes.

In Los Angeles, that wouldn’t be a problem as rotational minutes should be relatively easy to come by given their struggles during the season.