 After the Anthony Davis trade, what is next for the Los Angeles Lakers? As we all know by now, the Pelicans have agreed to trade Anthony Davis to the Los Angeles Lakers in a deal that includes Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart and three first round picks. Obviously that number four pick that is going to be selected in the 2019 NBA Draft is part of this deal and this is pretty big for both teams. Obviously it gives the Pelicans a new chance to start over, Zion Williamson, the number four pick. Lonzo Ball is still young, Ingram is still young as for the Lakers, they needed to get something to surround LeBron James, Anthony Davis is when healthy a top five player in the league and he's a great pairing to LeBron James. When you think about the trade deadline, it was Lonzo Ball, Ingram, Hart, Kuzma, Zubac and three future first round picks when Magic Johnson offered that trade and the Pelicans declined. Now this time they accept the offer just for Lonzo Ingram, Hart and three first round picks including the fourth overall pick. Look, at the end of the day they made the deal, both teams are happy. The great thing about the Lakers is Davis is only 26 years of age so once LeBron James ends his career they're going to keep Davis if he resigns and they can build around him as the franchise player which is a great franchise player to build around. And one thing to keep in mind is even with LeBron being one of the best if not the greatest players still in this league today he is 34 years old and he will be 35 by the time next season begins. So to keep Kuzma with Davis and still a potential chance to get a young piece of free agency gives the Lakers plenty of room to work with even at the end of the LeBron James era. For now though, he is still the king of this team and he's still looking to win championships. So we're going to discuss what is next for the Lakers and a little bit about the trade but I really want to discuss what they should do in this year's free agency if they should make trades, who they should sign and looking towards next year as a whole. As for the Pelicans, I'll have a video on them tomorrow but before I begin the video I just want to say I really really appreciate all your support recently. I'm trying to get out videos as regularly as possible trying to get back on the grind almost to 250,000 subscribers so if you enjoy my channel and you want to leave a like on the video that would be appreciated. Anyway let me know what team you'd like to see for the what next series after the Pelicans tomorrow and also let me know who you think the Lakers should be targeting right now. When June ends the Lakers will have room under the projected salary cap of $109 million to make another big trade or sign someone in free agency plus get some bench talent which they didn't really have a lot of this season. With that said if Kyrie Irving, Jimmy Butler or Kemba Walker were to be a part of this team it most likely wouldn't be for the Mac simply because if they did sign a third star the cost would be everyone on the current roster but James and Kuzma. The team would have four players including Anthony Davis and a max free agent with just a little bit of room exception for about 4.8 million dollars which is a little bit risky and their bench depth would lack a little bit and we've seen how that has affected teams in the past. Would you rather have a championship team or a team of champions and when you get into the finals or the playoffs you don't want your star players getting injured because I mean we just saw this year what happened with the Golden State Warriors. I'm not saying the Lakers will get injured but what I am saying is I would prefer a champion team rather than a team of champions if that makes sense. If the Lakers don't add a third star they'll instead use their remaining $27.7 million to choose from the available talent pool this summer which will create some bench depth and we'll discuss some potential candidates now. Number one I'm going to add all these guys together as the star player at the end of the day they can only get one of these guys. Kari Irving, Jimmy Butler and Kemba Walker these are the guys that I think the Lakers will go after and have a realistic chance at targeting more so than Kawai Leonard, Clay Thompson, Kevin Durant or D'Angelo Russell. Now the issue that the Lakers have is once again if they pay one of these guys max it limits what they can do for their depth but once again they still get a third star to join the dynamic duo and also Karl Kuzma so it's up in the air of what they're gonna do. Well Kari Irving probably not I don't believe he'll take anything less than a max contract and also a move back to LeBron James to me it may have a little bit of an effect on his overall legacy as a whole considering that he literally left LeBron to make his own path as a leader and now he'll just be back with him once again as the third star because obviously you would take Davis as your first or second option and Kari is your third in my opinion. I don't think it will happen honestly I don't think Kari will join the Lakers he does have a potential chance which is why I'm giving him a 35% chance of joining LA but I don't think he'll accept less than max and I also think he probably has a higher chance to join a team like the Brooklyn Nets or the New York Knicks. Number two Jimmy Butler I can actually see him taking a little bit less than max he's already stated that he'd love to play in LA he'd be a great fit defensively and he is still a good shooter he takes the pressure off LeBron and off Davis and defensively like I said one of the best players in the league even if he doesn't take less than a max contract I still think he has a high chance to end up in LA and he's probably the highest chance to end up in LA than anybody in my opinion I give Jimmy Butler a 60% chance to end up in LA and thirdly out of the three stars I'm saying Kemba Walker. Kemba Walker is one that has already stated he'll take less money but to stay in Charlotte and only just a few weeks ago Walker told the athletic that Charlotte was his first priority citing his start there as well as the contract that they could offer him during free agencies and ticing but ultimately we've seen stranger things happen in the NBA so I wouldn't be surprised if he joined a new team and I wouldn't be surprised if that was the Lakers he wants to win he'd be a great fit in LA if they don't get car reirving a strong possibility so I give him a 40% chance to join the Lakers. Now let's say they don't end up with any of these guys that leaves a lot of cap to be spent on their bench depth and it also means that they can make a trade I think a guy that could be a fit on this team could be Bradley Bill. I don't know how that would trade for Bradley Bill and I don't know when that would be maybe halfway through next season they can see how they're going with Davis and LeBron and Kuzma and if it's not really working out as well as they'd like they can trade for that third star whether that be Bradley Bill because there is always a third star that is on the trade block at the trade deadline because players go into a new contract players don't like their team players get unhappy things like that happen so I guess we'll have to see how the Lakers end up playing maybe until the trade deadline and don't be surprised if they try to play like Kuzma if he's not performing as well for a third star on this team but once again if they don't end up with a star player in this year's free agency they're gonna have to make their bench really really good and I think it's an option a guy that is not a star but he has been a great player in the past and is also up in the air of what he'll do next season is DeAndre Jordan let's be honest the nicks are going young if they're not gonna get a guy in this year's free agency and considering Durant's injured it seems very unlikely they're gonna get a superstar player if they can't land car reirving so with that said they may just go really young and I think if the nicks don't target anybody in free agency they may just leave DeAndre Jordan hanging and he could end up back in LA and he could end up this time with the Los Angeles Lakers another guy is that he is young he's a bench player or a starter he plays great defense and I think if you're gonna play with LeBron James and Anthony Davis you have to stretch the floor a little bit while he's not the best shooter he still can hit that mid-range shot and occasionally the three ball he does average 6.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists this year and I think young will probably re-sign with the Indiana Pacers when all the depot returns they still have plenty of playoff potential but if they don't offer him a contract I think the Lakers could be a great fit for Thaddeus young this is another guy that once again has a lot of potential to be a six-man candidate or a starter Nicola Miratich now he was a bit up in the air last year got traded end up with the Bucks and he really played well with the Bucks the thing about the Bucks is that they just fell under the luxury tax this season and they have to pay Malcolm Brogdon they're gonna pay Chris Middleton who has a player option and if they don't have enough money to get Miratich then they may have to let him walk he averaged 15 points and seven rebounds this season and I think he would be a great fit for the Lakers especially because he can stretch the floor and hit the three ball now I'm gonna talk about two point guards because the Lakers obviously need a point guard now and Ricky Rubio was a guy that the Utah Jazz said I don't think we're gonna bring him back so that means he's up on the block and he's in free agency he averaged almost 13 points we know how great of a facilitator he is he can just be an easy replacement for Lonzo Ball and his three-pointer has improved drastically Ricky Rubio could be a great fit for the Lakers considering he is just a facilitator and he can shoot the three now another guy and this is a completely different player and I don't think he really has a chance to join the Lakers but I'm gonna name him anyway and this is why this guy on the average 7.6 points 5 rebounds and a steal so you may be thinking those stats are not that great but 5 rebounds as a point guard and this guy is a defensive beast and that's Patrick Beverly now he's a two-time defensive player will he play with the Lakers probably not because the Clippers will want to retain him considering how they went last year but the thing about the Clippers if they end up chasing all those big names such as Kawai Leonard Kevin Durant they may not be able to bring him back and if he does end up somehow in free agency the Lakers could be a perfect choice because he can be a starter or a bench player for the Lakers and he would be a great fit considering his defense is amazing. Trevor Ariza. Ariza averaged 12.5 points and five and a half rebounds great defense Trevor Ariza was up and down on teams last year traded from Houston joined the Wizards joined Phoenix I think he needs to find a new team and I think it could be the Los Angeles Lakers especially off the bench he'd be a great fit. So those are the guys that I think they could target in this year's free agency and if the Lakers do give Davis his trade bonus and they can renegotiate his salary to the max that means then after six months they can give him an extension which in turn can help them out in the future but right now at this point in time which is as I'm making this video they have a roster with just five players Mo Wagner Isaac Bonga Anthony Davis LeBron James and Karl Kuzma obviously with the Lakers having many players leave in this year's free agency and knowing that most of the players last season were at just a one year rental such as Rondo Cadwell Pope Tyson Chandler Cheval McGee Lance Stevenson Reggie Bullock and others it's no surprise that this year's free agency will be huge for them especially trying to get some depth this upcoming season it almost seems like an NBA 2k roster where you just try and get that star player and then you just fill out your team with other players that is what this season feels like of course they kept Karl Kuzma and he will have to play his role extremely well number one so he doesn't get traded and number two if the Lakers just want to actually keep him as a third star he needs to improve and become a better shooter even better than he is at the moment I'd say the next step for him to fit with this team is to become a better defender as well he has to become an all-around better player but ultimately a defensive player is something he should work on he needs to shoot better from the three-point range he shot 30% from last season but that will have to improve to 35-40% which can happen because Kuzma definitely has the potential and he's only a second or now third-year player in the league LeBron and Davis own the paint so Kuzma won't have a lot of time to get the shot off inside the paint which means it's going to become more of an outside player with that said if you guys enjoy the video please be sure to subscribe for more leave a like if you enjoy the video follow me on Instagram turn on notifications and let's see if we can reach 1000 likes for the next video that will be on the pelicans but let me know what team after if you enjoyed this video be sure to check out some of my other videos and I'll catch you guys there I am out peace