NBA Trade Rumors: LA Lakers Could Swap Kentavious Caldwell-Pope For Jeremy Lin, ‘Lakers Nation’ Suggests

The Los Angeles Lakers have gone through lots of ups and downs during the 2018-19 NBA season. While they are trying to improve their chemistry, the Lakers have been hit by multiple injuries. Aside from LeBron James, the Lakers could be heading into their upcoming game against the reigning NBA champions, Golden State Warriors, without two of their point guards — Lonzo Ball and Rajon Rondo.

Just in time when Rajon Rondo is near to reach his 100 percent recovery, Lonzo Ball suffered a sprained left ankle in the Lakers’ recent game against the Houston Rockets. Ball’s X-ray results were negative, but he is still scheduled to undergo an MRI to know the severity of his injury. Lakers Head Coach Luke Walton is hoping that Ball wouldn’t miss too many games, especially now that they have already entered the second half of the 2018-19 NBA season.

Losing either Lonzo Ball or Rajon Rondo to injury will undeniably have a huge effect in the Lakers’ chance of ending their playoff drought this season. With Ball and Rondo out on their roster, Coach Luke Walton will be forced to entrust the play-making responsibilities to non-point guards like Brandon Ingram, Lance Stephenson, and Josh Hart. According to Trevor Lane of Lakers Nation, to address their backcourt concerns, the Lakers may consider targeting veteran point guard Jeremy Lin before the February NBA trade deadline.

“Could Linsanity return to Los Angeles? The Lakers have been thin at the point guard position this season due to multiple injuries to Rondo, forcing head coach Luke Walton to use James, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart, Lance Stephenson and even Svi Mykhailiuk to initiate the offense. Thus, it probably wouldn’t hurt to add another true point guard to the roster, and the veteran Lin would be a solid fill-in off the bench and also has an expiring contract that would make an easy swap with the aforementioned Caldwell-Pope.”

Headline in SportsDay, March 2012:
Jeremy Lin: There may have been no Linsanity without Donnie Nelsonhttps://t.co/E11jXk809x

— Nathan Gottlieb (@zukovka) January 16, 2019

Jeremy Lin will give the Lakers insurance at the point guard position if Rajon Rondo or Lonzo Ball fails to be 100 percent healthy when the real battle begins in the Western Conference Playoffs. Despite mostly coming off the bench and receiving limited playing time, the Asian-American guard remains impressive in his first year with the Atlanta Hawks. This season, Lin is averaging 10.7 points and 3.6 assists on 47.3 percent shooting from the field and 33.7 percent shooting from beyond the arc.

Lane believes that Kentavious Caldwell-Pope would be enough to convince the Hawks to send Jeremy Lin to Los Angeles. Caldwell-Pope is only 25 and could still be part of the rebuilding process. However, it is highly likely that the Hawks will still demand at least a future second-round pick in return for the veteran point guard.