After acquiring Luka Doncic from Dallas at the start of trade deadline week, the Lakers targeted Hornets center Mark Williams in large part because he was “handpicked” by Doncic as the sort of big man Los Angeles’ new franchise player would thrive next to, reports Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
Team sources tell McMenamin that the Lakers viewed the 23-year-old Williams as the sort of player who could grow alongside Doncic in the long term while also fortifying L.A.’s frontcourt against Western rivals like Houston, Memphis, Denver, and Oklahoma City in the short term.
Before agreeing to trade for Williams on Wednesday night, the Lakers weighed whether he was worth the steep price it would take to acquire him, given his injury history, McMenamin writes. Head of basketball operations Rob Pelinka opted to pull the trigger, deciding on an “all in” approach to the deadline and agreeing to send Dalton Knecht, Cam Reddish, a 2031 first-round pick, and a 2030 pick swap to the Hornets for Williams.
As one Lakers source tells ESPN, Williams’ fit was viewed as a necessity on a roster lacking a starting-caliber center, while Knecht’s was considered a luxury, and the club wanted to establish “goodwill” with Doncic to get the relationship on the right foot. There was also some internal debate on how valuable the Lakers’ 2031 pick would end up actually being.
After making the deal with Charlotte, Pelinka expressed confidence when he talked about the deal on Thursday that Williams’ health wouldn’t be an issue going forward: “We fully vetted [Williams’] health stuff. He’s had no surgeries. So these are just parts of, he’s still growing into his body. We vetted the injuries he’s had, and we’re not concerned about those.”
However, after getting him into the building and conducting a physical, the Lakers identified additional concerns with Williams’ health and ultimately decided to pull out of the trade.
As McMenamin writes, there are some people within the Lakers who expressed relief that the deal didn’t end up going through — one team source said the package was “a lot” to give up for Williams and suggested the club “kind of dodged a bullet.” But the voiding of the trade meant that the Lakers failed in their first attempt to satisfy Doncic and will need to repair their relationship with Knecht, according to McMenamin, who adds that there’s a “perception of fumbled execution” based on how the process played out.
“Nobody did the research prior?” one league source said to ESPN. “Why would [Williams] be available that young?”
Here’s more on the Lakers:
- The Lakers considered a trade for Knicks big man Jericho Sims before he was sent to Milwaukee and might have had interest in Alex Len, who has agreed to sign with Indiana after being waived by Washington, sources tell McMenamin. Neither big man would’ve been a clear upgrade on the club’s current options, but they’re two more depth options who are now off the board.
- Although the Lakers have a full 15-man roster, they still have enough room below their second-apron hard cap to waive a player to bring in another big man. In that scenario, Reddish and Christian Wood would likely be the top candidates to be cut, Lakers sources tell ESPN. “We will find another center path,” a team source told McMenamin. “The path is always there. We just got to put in the work to find it.”
- With Williams not coming to Los Angeles, Jaxson Hayes figures to continue starting at center for the Lakers. LeBron James had “privately wondered” whether the 24-year-old was experienced enough to take on that role down the stretch and in the playoffs, sources tell McMenamin. Hayes is off to a solid start — the Lakers have won each of his last seven starts, including all five games since Jan. 30. He also should have Doncic’s support. According to McMenamin, Hayes – who shares an agent, Bill Duffy, with the former Mavs star – was the first Laker to go out for dinner with Doncic after he arrived in L.A.
- “When (Doncic) was in Dallas and I was in New Orleans my first few years, they kept trying to trade for me,” Hayes told McMenamin. “New Orleans never allowed it. He was like, ‘Do you remember when we couldn’t trade for you?’ I was like, ‘Do you remember what I told you after every game I played against you?’ After every game I would be like, ‘If you ever need a big, I would love to play with you.’ Just because of the way he moves the ball.”
- It “wasn’t lost on James’ camp,” sources tell ESPN, that Pelinka sought Doncic’s input and pursued a trade target he wanted immediately after his arrival. For years, LeBron has wanted the Lakers’ to trade future draft picks to upgrade their roster, McMenamin notes.
The voided trade could end up being a good thing for the Lakers. they over paid for a injured center.
In the NBA oft injured describes half the players
Wonder if they’ll revisit trading for Williams in the off-season for a smaller deal considering the extent of the injuries.
That or somehow convince Myles Turner to come for a discount.
Is it me or is Myles Turner overrated? I mean besides his 2016 NBA 2nd all rookie team, he hasn’t had any other accolade. Even when he had 3.4 BPG a few years ago, he didn’t even get an all NBA recognition (finished 9th in DPOY). He’s a good player, but everyone hypes him up to be this unstoppable beast with 3 point shot and block city real estate. Also he’s never been a strong rebounder only averaging 6.8 RPG and he’s 6’11. There probably are better guys who you can get who will do the dirty work for Luka for years to come than Myles Turner IMHO.
Biggest thing with Turner is that he’s injured a lot. It’s why he hasn’t gotten the accolades you’re talking about. Dude’s a beast when healthy, but that’s fairly rare.
The other thing is he doesn’t play a ton of minutes. 28.7 per game for his career, so his counting stats are just lower than guys who average 32+ as a matter of course.
The low rebounding is a side effect of being so committed to shot defense. His game is to alter or block any shot in his range. Rebounds are a secondary consideration. It shows in his defensive stats based on range. 6 feet or less from the rim, opponents shoot 6.4 percentage points worse than the league average. In his best seasons, the numbers were roughly twice as strong.
That said, he’s not much of a lob target or post player, so he’s not a great fit to play with Luka.
The reason the Lakers went after Turner for so long is he is, on paper, an ideal fit to play the 5 next to AD at the 4. He’s a great rim protector, so AD could theoretically play as a roamer or in drop to emphasize the defense, and Turner is an above-average shooter for a big, so he naturally helps the spacing and wouldn’t have forced AD to take extra 3s just to make the spacing work.
Of course, now that AD is gone, that consideration no longer matters at all.
Maybe they’ll target Kessler for a similar package to what they gave up.
I think Ainge would give Kessler to Russia, before he gives anything of value to the Lakers and help them. Lol he does not hide the fact that he hates the Lakers and it’s well known league wide.
Also, Ainge has made it clear he isnt trading Kessler unless its for a great price. Kessler is exactly what rebuilding teams need, a very good deal on a rookie deal. Why would a rebuilding team trade a draft pick 7 drafts in the future when Kessler is about as good as a player as you can hope for with a draft pick. That would just restart the rebuild. As Ainge stated, he would need minimum a solid young player plus 2 future 1st would makes sense.
TimeLord might be a guy for Luca to throw lobs to.
He’s a health upgrade?
There are still plenty of 5’s out there that may be an upgrade to or at the very least better than nothing as a backup to Hayes. Moses Brown in the G League, Daniel Theis, Robin Lopez, or Mo Bamba sitting at home, or even some NBL guys who just had their season wrap up like Tacko Fall, Montrezl Harrell, or Will Magnay.
Tacko Fall can’t play
Moses Brown could be a good center. I don’t know why he doesn’t have a real rotation opportunity
The whole point of the trade physical is to do this. Cant criticizie the Lakers for following the process they are supposed to follow.
What you CAN criticize them for is that they waited until the last possible minute to do all of this, and thus now, they don’t have the opportunity to acquire a different center instead. Bad planning to target an oft inured center and not have a contingency in case he’s injured.
Lakers did overpay for him. They are better off long run. Not doing anything this yr. So another Bron yr gone. Frankly I can see Bron leaving next yr. Why stay. Take the midlevel from Cavs and end it right.
Sims is an upgrade over Hayes …..
Bron leaving could be best thing. They can sign two players on Luka time table.
What is Cam thinking ?? Nobody wants him. He’s a classic underachiever. Just happy to get an NBA chk.
I think in the next like 2ish years, I could see a world where it’s going to be Luka, Jimmy Butler, and Giannis, and Klay on the Lakers, Steph, Draymond and LeBron with GS, and possibly Kyrie, KD, and AD in Dallas
Hard to believe LAL didn’t pick up Sims regardless of the Williams deal. He’s just a minimum contract, and NYK clearly weren’t asking for much of anything.
LAL deserves credit for pursuing Williams, who was an off script target, and was not generally being shopped. It makes sense that the LAL, a late participant in the C market, and taking the path least traveled, might have to rush to get their deal filed with the league office by the deadline. But something still appeared amiss. Physicals are the only deal conditions that are permitted to be open at the time of the filing. Here, it appeared there was something else unresolved that was giving the LAL angst.
why would the lakers need to show good will to luka right out the gate?