Obviously, I'm at work right now, but I'm taking my lunch break, which leaves me room to talk about this trade the Lakers made at the deadline. So, the Lakers send Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr. to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Isaiah Thomas and Channing Frye. The original package was for IT, Frye, and a protected 1st round pick the Cavs got from the Nets. But, because the pick is protected, they can't trade it until the draft, so that left the Lakers with just IT and Frye. This trade is made for obvious reasons that Magic and Rob Pelinka are going all in for the 2018 and 2019 free agent class. Lakers wanted to unload Deng's $72 million contract, but they couldn't get any takers unless they were willing to unload Ingram or Kuzma. So, they gotta get rid of 2nd biggest contract, which happened to be Clarkson's $50 million contract. By unloading Clarkson's contract and taking the two expiring contracts of IT and Frye (they'll be free agents next year), the Lakers are gonna have a big amount of cap room to max out at least two top-tier free agents. That's essentially what this trade is about. And we knew that Magic and Rob will make a trade eventually this season. Obviously, Clarkson's scoring and Nance's hustle off the bench will be irreplaceable. That'll put a lot of load on Kuzma to carry the 2nd unit. So even though IT and Frye are stop-gap players, what do they bring to the table? Before the hip injury, IT has shown that he can score at will and he has a lot of heart. He lead the Celtics to the #1 seed last season and he was even in the conversation for MVP. The Cavs are calling a "Hail Mary" to get back to the finals and they can't wait for IT to be 100%. It's completely contingent to where he's at now health-wise, but the Lakers needed a quality backup point guard and Thomas provides that when healthy. For Frye, I don't see him getting too much playing time, but he provides another veteran presence on this roster along with Lopez, KCP, and Brewer. Both of them do actually. Like I said, this trade is a means for the Lakers to clear up cap space for the next two offseasons to get two top-tier free agents on max deals. It's just a matter if the chips can fall into the Lakers' favor this time around. The biggest difference is that they finally have a core to build around with Zo, Ingram, and Kuzma and will certainly entice free agents to join the team. But, for a short time welcome to LA, IT and Frye!
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