The Los Angeles Lakers may need some more elite talent with playoff experience to help them capture another championship in 2024-25, and a recent report introduced two names that could give them a boost at guard.
Lakers urged to pursue trades for Grizzlies’ Marcus Smart and Wizards’ Malcolm Brogdon
Bleacher Report’s Eric Pincus made the case that the Lakers would be well-suited to go after Memphis Grizzlies point guard Marcus Smart and Washington Wizards floor general Malcolm Brogdon. Pincus has this to say about the former (h/t Bobby Krivitsky of Boston Celtics on SI):
“The Lakers need to improve defensively in the backcourt,” notes Pincus. “Smart is a strong, tough, physical defender with significant postseason experience.”
As touching how realistic it would be for Los Angeles to get a deal done with Memphis, Pincus continued:
“If the team hits a roadblock, Smart could become available at the deadline based on his age, salary, and position, as the team is heavily invested in Desmond Bane and Morant. Jaren Jackson Jr. will also be due a new deal starting in 2026-27.”
Smart could add a defensive edge and strong outside shooting to the Lakers
Smart is a former Defensive Player of the Year from 2022 who plays with a noticeable edge and excels at connecting from long range, finishing in the lane in traffic, and making plays for his teammates. He’d help instill a championship-level defense on a Lakers team that finished with the 16th-best defensive rating (114.8) in the league last season. They let opponents run wild in transition, allowing the fourth-most fastbreak points (16.2 FB PPG), and swing the rock well with 28.2 assists per night, which ranked fifth-worst in the NBA.
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Brogdon is an elite shooter and defender for the Lakers to take a look at
Brogdon is a former 50-40-90 club member from 2019 who could give the Lakers a player who is capable of dishing out eight dimes on any given game and could offset LeBron James as their primary or secondary ball handler. He’s also a former 2023 Sixth Man of the Year who would thrive either starting or coming off of Lakers head coach JJ Redick’s bench in 2024-25. He too is an elite and high-IQ perimeter defender that could help Los Angeles immensely in that department.
Smart & Brogdon could form a scary pick-and-roll defense next to Anthony Davis
Both Smart and Brogdon have been to the Conference Finals, and Smart to the 2022 NBA Finals, which would give James and Anthony Davis an experienced guard to lean on to contain elite playmakers in the Western Conference.
Further, Davis has shown that, with the right point guard around him — a la Rajon Rondo on both his No. 6-seeded New Orleans Pelicans team from 2018 that upset that year’s No. 3-seeded Portland Trail Blazers, as well as on their championship Lakers team from 2020, and Jrue Holiday who was also on that same 2018 Pelicans squad — he can form a pairing that can completely shut down opposing pick-and-rolls in frightening fashion.
The Lakers currently have D’Angelo Russell manning the starting point guard slot and Gabe Vincent backing him up. While Russell is an elite clutch performer, talented distributor, and three-point shooter, he is nowhere near the defender that the two aforementioned talents are, and both may be a better fit in Los Angeles, especially with Russell’s name having been circulated in trade rumors throughout the offseason.