If the Los Angeles Lakers want to be in the running for the NBA championship in 2024–25, they need to make use of this summer to bring their team up to a level where they can compete for the championship.
This will not be an easy task for a team that just finished a season with 47 wins, which was not particularly impressive, and then immediately after that, they were eliminated in the first round by the Denver Nuggets, who are the reigning champions of the NBA. However, there is a distinction to be made between something being difficult and something being completely impossible.
It is possible that the Lakers may experience a difference as a result of winning the Donovan Mitchell sweepstakes.
I want to make it clear that there is no assurance that those sweepstakes will actually transpire. Mitchell has at least one more year left on his deal, and according to Spotrac, he has a player option worth $37.1 million for the 2025-26 season. The Cleveland Cavaliers are not likely to be in a hurry to part with the guy who is the leading scorer and the only All-Star from their Eastern Conference semifinalist side.
On the other hand, Cleveland might not have a choice because Mitchell might potentially be available for free agency the next summer. In the event that he does not accept an extension of his current contract and declares that he intends to leave the team by the year 2025, the Cavaliers would be required to move him away for a little mountain of assets in order to avoid the possibility of his leaving for nothing.
According to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, who appeared on Get Up, the Lakers are among the teams who “have their offers ready” for a Mitchell blockbuster trade. This is because the prospect of such a deal occurring is rather plausible.
I am attempting to walk the line because I do not want anyone in Cleveland, where I was born and raised, to become overly excited about me, but there are a number of teams who have their offers ready. According to Windhorst, they are prepared.
There is a possibility that the competition for a Mitchell trade will be fierce. The 27-year-old is currently in the midst of his peak, having been selected for the All-Star game five times in a row and having just matched his career-high 6.1 assists with his 26.6 points per game, which is ninth-most in the Association.
It is possible that his contract uncertainty will cause some clubs to be hesitant, but teams that are convinced that he will remain with them for more than one season could pay a significant amount of money to acquire him.
The Los Angeles area is able to cover that expense. On the night of the draft, the Los Angeles Lakers will have three first-round picks to trade, including the 17th overall selection, which Jovan Buha of The Athletic said the team might be “aggressive” in shopping. In addition, the Lakers will have salaries to make the money work and plug-and-play players to send back.
Although the Cavaliers are the only ones who know what they would be ready to accept from the Lakers, it seems like a logical assumption that Austin Reaves would be required to be involved. “but if there was a scenario in which they could consider trading him, it would have to be for a bona fide All-Star,” said Buha on Buha’s Block. “Los Angeles has not appeared to be very interested in moving the third-year combo guard,” Buha said.
Indeed, Mitchell satisfies all of those requirements. During the previous season, he was selected for the All-NBA second team and finished sixth in the voting for Most Valuable Player.
In addition to this, he is precisely the kind of high-end shot-creator that the Lakers require in order to reduce the amount of work that is required of LeBron James and Anthony Davis. In spite of the fact that Los Angeles would have to sacrifice some of its depth in order to make a deal, the star power that would follow from this would be well worth it.
Mitchell does not have to be the dominant player in the basketball game; he is currently sharing touches with Darius Garland in Cleveland, and his catch-and-shoot looks might be flawless when he is playing with gravitational forces such as James and Davis. In situations where Mitchell is in possession of the ball, he has the ability to clear his own defender off the dribble and either finish the opportunities he creates or set up his teammates. It may be quite difficult to put a stop to pick-and-roll actions that involve any two of those three characters.
These hypothetical Lakers would be able to get all the way to the point where they would be in contention for the championship. Given that Los Angeles has a limited window of opportunity to add to James’ ring collection, this makes a Mitchell pursuit an absolute certainty.
