THT: Trade or Not

[TylersLakers]

To me one of the more disappointing aspects of this season after anything associated to Westbrook and coaching was THT. I really thought going into the season that he’d be a combo guard/forward who could handle and lead a bench unit, or be the second ball handler playing next to either Westbrook or LeBron. Neither happened, he was ridiculously inconsistent and considering his contract situation, he’s probably got worse trade value than ever before.

I’ve never been high on him, I wanted the Lakers to trade him for Lowry last trade deadline and I certainly preferred Caruso to him in any scenario. With that said, I’ve always thought he’d eventually be a really good player and I still think he eventually will be as he ages and matures.

We clearly don’t have the proper player development with this coaching and front office structure. Examples of this are littered all over the league. I don’t trust he’ll reach his full potential.

What makes matters worse is he’s essentially on a one year contract next season where he’ll be a potential UFA next season. If he blows up, teams won’t have the ability to match his rights.

So he’s without a doubt at his lowest value right now. So what do we do? I think we have to get rid of him even if he’s a sunken cost and we have terrible leverage when it comes to him. And the reality is: we know he’ll go somewhere else and be a really, really productive player as the years go on.

The more and more I look at our salary situation, I think our first call has to be either OKC or Indiana. If it’s OKC, a deal can be completed as soon as the season ends. Eric Pincus and Hollinger have each speculated with:

Westbrook, 2027 1st, 2nd rounder to OKC for Favors (10M), Kenrich Williams ($2M) and Mike Muscala ($3.5M)

The deal gives us a $30M trade exception and takes us under the luxury tax (appealing to the Buss family I’m sure) which means we’d have the full MLE ($10M) and BLE ($4M) to use. You use those exceptions wisely and we have LeBron, AD + valuable parts. Assuming we use the exceptions smartly on wings and big guards.. where does that leave THT?

Also, there’s potential for cap space in 2023 with this route depending on how many years the exceptions are and a LeBron extension.

Or to Indiana:

Westbrook, 2027 1st and 2029 1st for Hield, Brogdon - if Indiana wanted THT as well, would you throw him in?

Our team would basically be

Brogdon/Hield/Nunn/AD/LeBron/Reaves/Stanley and we’d have one exception ($6M) to use. Not a lot of flexibility there but that’s a pretty good group to start with.

So do we keep THT? What are some trades around the league that would be good for us if we decide to deal him?

[Ball so hard]

In the words of the late Kobe, ship his ass out.

On a more serious note, what exactly is his full potential? It's never a good sign when you regress in your 3rd year. I'm not saying he's a finished product at the age of 21. However, we've seen far more bad than good at this point. To date there is simply no empirical evidence to suggest with any degree of confidence that he'll be a "really good player."

We're likely to get fleeced in any deals with OKC. Presti is competent and Pelinka is not. While on paper Indiana makes a good trade partner, I skeptical they'd want to trade with us. I still think there's some bad blood between the two organizations even though we're a few years past the whole Paul George kerfuffle.

If all else fails I'd be open to another year of THT as our full time back-up guard. We'd definitely need some floor spacers around him. I never thought he fit with the starting lineup.

[Slava]

His shooting has regressed, his defense has regressed and he simply feels like a player who got paid and shut up shop. He’s more than likely a certain trade candidate, along with Nunn.

[KL78192020]

That trade to the Raptors for Lowry for THT and fillers would've worked out. Plus it would've had the addend bonus of not trading for Westbrook if they traded for Lowry.

[TylersLakers]

That trade to the Raptors for Lowry for THT and fillers would've worked out. Plus it would've had the addend bonus of not trading for Westbrook if they traded for Lowry.

Don't remind me. That move was so dumb. Lowry's older but he certainly fit better to LeBron and AD than Westbrook.

Ugh, so many different avenues we could've went down and been a much more successful team. I can't believe this is the great option that was chosen.

[TylersLakers]

His shooting has regressed, his defense has regressed and he simply feels like a player who got paid and shut up shop. He’s more than likely a certain trade candidate, along with Nunn.

I actually like the idea of Nunn - if he can get healthy. If it's possible he can be a healthy player going into next season at $5.2M - that's a win.

If you combine THT, Nunn, Stanley - You can get up to around $20M in salary to take back. Here are said players that are realistic IMO:

- Tim Hardaway Jr, $19.6M: Interesting. Very.. interesting. Lot of years left on his deal but he's the exact kind of player we need.
- Harrison Barnes, $18.3M: Sign me up now.
- Jerami Grant, $20.9M: Sign me up now.
- Bogdan Bogdanovic (Atlanta), $18M: Interesting.
- Clint Capela, $19.7M: Meh.
- Eric Gordon, $19.5M: Meh.
- Myles Turner, $18M: Sign me up
- Evan Fournier, $18M: Meh.
- Duncan Robinson, $16.9M: Down year - I'd take him.
- Will Barton, $14.3M: Yes.
- Christian Wood, $14.3M: Yes
- KCP, $14M: I would absolutely take KCP back.
- Kelly Olynyk, $12.8M: Sign me up.
- Larry Nance Jr, $9.7M: Yes.
- Richaun Holmes, $11.2M: Would Sac trade him after acquiring Sabonis? I'd certainly take him.
- Royce O'Neal, $9.3M: A Jazz shake-up? I'd do THT for him straight up.
- Caruso, $9.0M: I'd throw in 1st round picks for the next 100 years.
- Montre Morris, $9.1M: Yes
- TJ McConnell, $8.1M: Yes

[Beethoven]

I dont have to read any of this tldr, trade the dude.

[SlimShady83]

Yes sir please trade him.

[Slava]

His shooting has regressed, his defense has regressed and he simply feels like a player who got paid and shut up shop. He’s more than likely a certain trade candidate, along with Nunn.

I actually like the idea of Nunn - if he can get healthy. If it's possible he can be a healthy player going into next season at $5.2M - that's a win.

If you combine THT, Nunn, Stanley - You can get up to around $20M in salary to take back. Here are said players that are realistic IMO:

- Tim Hardaway Jr, $19.6M: Interesting. Very.. interesting. Lot of years left on his deal but he's the exact kind of player we need.
- Harrison Barnes, $18.3M: Sign me up now.
- Jerami Grant, $20.9M: Sign me up now.
- Bogdan Bogdanovic (Atlanta), $18M: Interesting.
- Clint Capela, $19.7M: Meh.
- Eric Gordon, $19.5M: Meh.
- Myles Turner, $18M: Sign me up
- Evan Fournier, $18M: Meh.
- Duncan Robinson, $16.9M: Down year - I'd take him.
- Will Barton, $14.3M: Yes.
- Christian Wood, $14.3M: Yes
- KCP, $14M: I would absolutely take KCP back.
- Kelly Olynyk, $12.8M: Sign me up.
- Larry Nance Jr, $9.7M: Yes.
- Richaun Holmes, $11.2M: Would Sac trade him after acquiring Sabonis? I'd certainly take him.
- Royce O'Neal, $9.3M: A Jazz shake-up? I'd do THT for him straight up.
- Caruso, $9.0M: I'd throw in 1st round picks for the next 100 years.
- Montre Morris, $9.1M: Yes
- TJ McConnell, $8.1M: Yes

I think Atlanta are natural trading partners, they have too many decent players on longer term deals they could look to move. If we can somehow merge contracts together to get any of Collins, Bogdanovic, or Capela, I'd be ecstatic. May be even pull them in as a third team in a Westbrook trade so they can consolidate some pieces into a higher caliber player.

[DNP-Old]

THT has negative value. LAL will have to attach assets to him in order to get some other team to take him (and no, Nunn and Stanley are not positive assets). So unless LAL can find an equally bad, or worse contract they are willing to take on themselves, they will have to add draft capital to trade him.

[Landsberger]

He surprised some people when he was playing more minutes against lesser competition in blow outs and is spot runs. In a true rotational spot teams have found his weak spots and he's shown so far no ability to adapt and grow. He's not a piece who will make a huge difference either way.

[slifersd]

I am as disappointed as anyone else with THT this season, but I think we also need to take a more measured approach with him.

Yes, it is certainly fair to say THT had a bad season and looked lost on the court often. But it is also important to talk about that in the context of the entire team struggling as a whole. We were married to playing Russ heavy minutes, which basically made it impossible for THT to thrive since he absolutely cannot play with Russ. The lack of an actual offensive system also made it hard for THT to really know what to do.

Sure, it is easy to say, let's just trade his ass, but his value is at an all time low right now and we'd be selling for pennies on the dollar at this point. Rough season or not, you can see THT has talent and can be a useful player in the right set up. If we get a more traditional point guard next year and better spacing, there is no reason THT couldn't be a useful piece off bench. We need to be really careful about not selling low on our assets any more, since we have so few of them. We sold Kuzma cheap and got robbed hard, let's not make that mistake again with THT. I say we keep THT another year and actually construct a team that fits his skill set better

[hype_2004]

In the words of the late Kobe, ship his ass out.

On a more serious note, what exactly is his full potential? It's never a good sign when you regress in your 3rd year. I'm not saying he's a finished product at the age of 21. However, we've seen far more bad than good at this point. To date there is simply no empirical evidence to suggest with any degree of confidence that he'll be a "really good player."

We're likely to get fleeced in any deals with OKC. Presti is competent and Pelinka is not. While on paper Indiana makes a good trade partner, I skeptical they'd want to trade with us. I still think there's some bad blood between the two organizations even though we're a few years past the whole Paul George kerfuffle.

If all else fails I'd be open to another year of THT as our full time back-up guard. We'd definitely need some floor spacers around him. I never thought he fit with the starting lineup.

Lowry was on his way then your GM balked and rejected the trade offer, what a dumbass. Lowry would've made this Lakers team a contender and you probably had DeRozan going there as well

[RamonSessions7]

I’d rather just rebuild entirely. Banking on AD to play basketball has already taken a dump on our faces for 2 years now and Lebron isn’t good enough to carry garbage anymore, so shipping out THT or not is spraying febreeze on a **** mound at this point

[scoobs07]

I would trade him and a first for Monk.

[tamaraw08]

My biggest problem about giving him that relatively lucrative contract, was the fact that 29 other teams actually didn’t tender a huge offer sheet for Rob to really feel the pressure of locking him up. This has the fingerprints of Klutch pressuring the Lakers so they can make more money out of him. Vogel envisioning that he will mature and turn into a great stopper didnt help at all especially when they had to choose between him and Caruso because of their unwillingness to pay the luxury tax. The logic was that he’s so young and he can turn into a Small Brandon Ingram but then again BI has really shown progress by 20 years old.

[mtcan]

His shooting has regressed, his defense has regressed and he simply feels like a player who got paid and shut up shop. He’s more than likely a certain trade candidate, along with Nunn.

I actually like the idea of Nunn - if he can get healthy. If it's possible he can be a healthy player going into next season at $5.2M - that's a win.

If you combine THT, Nunn, Stanley - You can get up to around $20M in salary to take back. Here are said players that are realistic IMO:

- Tim Hardaway Jr, $19.6M: Interesting. Very.. interesting. Lot of years left on his deal but he's the exact kind of player we need.
- Harrison Barnes, $18.3M: Sign me up now.
- Jerami Grant, $20.9M: Sign me up now.
- Bogdan Bogdanovic (Atlanta), $18M: Interesting.
- Clint Capela, $19.7M: Meh.
- Eric Gordon, $19.5M: Meh.
- Myles Turner, $18M: Sign me up
- Evan Fournier, $18M: Meh.
- Duncan Robinson, $16.9M: Down year - I'd take him.
- Will Barton, $14.3M: Yes.
- Christian Wood, $14.3M: Yes
- KCP, $14M: I would absolutely take KCP back.
- Kelly Olynyk, $12.8M: Sign me up.
- Larry Nance Jr, $9.7M: Yes.
- Richaun Holmes, $11.2M: Would Sac trade him after acquiring Sabonis? I'd certainly take him.
- Royce O'Neal, $9.3M: A Jazz shake-up? I'd do THT for him straight up.
- Caruso, $9.0M: I'd throw in 1st round picks for the next 100 years.
- Montre Morris, $9.1M: Yes
- TJ McConnell, $8.1M: Yes

I'm sorry to chime in but...THT, Nunn and Stanley **** Johnson gonna get you someone with actual basketball skills? WTF?

Nunn hasn't played a single game this season. THT looks worse now than he did as a rookie. Stanley Johnson was literally told by Masai Ujiri that is bad at basketball.

C'mon man...

[topdaytrader]

Ship his a$$ out!!! Bring Melo and Westbrick w/him as well.

[LakersLegacy]

WB was detrimental to his development. But he did have a 40 point game at the end. I’d like to see THT, Nunn, LeBron and Davis start and Westbrook back up LeBron as a triple double threat/only come off the bench after being humbled.

[zimpy27]

It depends on what you can get for him. It's not as simple as trade or not. But yeah, should look to trade him if they get something worthwhile.

I doubt he gets a good offer though and I suspect he's kept.

I actually like Reaves, THT, LeBron, Davis as a starting group with a 2-way PG like Conley.