NBA Rumors: LA Lakers Could Land Derrick Rose For Kyle Kuzma And Draft Pick, Per ‘Lake Show Life’
The 2020 February NBA trade deadline may have passed with Derrick Rose still on the Detroit Pistons’ roster, but rumors continue to swirl around his future in the league. With the Pistons likely taking a different path in the offseason, they are expected to convert the final year of Rose’s contract into assets that could help them speed up the rebuilding process. Once he becomes officially available on the trading block this summer, several teams that are in dire need of a backcourt boost could express a strong interest in adding Rose to their roster.
According to Jason Reed of Fansided’s Lake Show Life, one of the potential suitors for Rose this offseason is the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers may currently have the best record in the Western Conference, but there are still plenty of issues on their roster, including their need for another shot-creator and ball-handler alongside LeBron James.
Reed believes that the Lakers could immediately solve their backcourt problem by trading for Rose this summer.
“That player to target is Derrick Rose, and while there would be some hurdles to get over in terms of salaries, he would be an excellent style fit on the Lakers. There is a concern about how much he needs the ball to be successful but adding a dynamic playmaking guard to LeBron James and Anthony Davis would be fantastic. This, of course, is assuming that Davis comes back to the team. If so, I could see the Lakers getting Rose for Kuzma and one of their pick swaps with the New Orleans Pelicans in the coming years.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FtvwX8WdyM
In the proposed trade deal, the Lakers would be sending a package including Kyle Kuzma and a future first-round pick to the Pistons in exchange for Rose. For the deal to work under the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement, the Lakers would need to add more players in the package to match the Pistons’ outgoing salary.
James and Rose’s lone season of playing together in Cleveland may have been a disaster, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that the same thing would happen when they team up once again in Los Angeles. Unlike his stint with the Cavaliers, Rose is now in better shape and has shown a massive improvement with his three-point shooting. This season, the 31-year-old former MVP is averaging 18.1 points and 5.6 assists while shooting 49.0 percent from the field and 30.6 percent from beyond the arc.
The potential deal should be a no-brainer for the Pistons, especially if they finally decide to undergo a full-scale rebuild. Instead of taking the risk of losing Rose in the 2021 free agency without getting anything in return, the Pistons would be receiving a young and promising talent in Kuzma, who could be the centerpiece of the next title-contending team that they will try to build in Detroit. Being traded to a team where he could be the main option on the offensive end of the floor could speed up Kuzma’s development into a legitimate superstar.
