Lakers Right to Take Patient Approach Amid Zach LaVine, More NBA Trade Rumors

The Los Angeles Lakers have been at the center of trade rumors and innuendo for the last month amid a slow start to the season, but Jovan Buha of The Athletic reported, "The Lakers plan to take a patient approach to the trade market, team sources not authorized to speak publicly tell The Athletic, and would prefer to see what their group looks like whole before making a monumental roster decision."

It is the right move for an organization whose offseason work has not manifested itself on the court to this point in the season.

Jarred Vanderbilt has not played a game yet, Gabe Vincent has played in only four, Rui Hachimura has missed just under half of the season, and Cam Reddish has missed four games since filling in as a starter.

Despite LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Austin Reaves, and D'Angelo Russell being mostly healthy thus far, the team's depth has been adversely affected by injury, making it nearly impossible for team officials to get a feel for what this incarnation of the Lakers looks like.

Just months after competing in the Western Conference Finals and losing to the eventual NBA champion Denver Nuggets, the Lakers made several offseason moves in hopes of building depth behind their starters so that the team would not miss a step should James, Davis or anyone else need spelled due to injury.

Unfortunately, those depth pieces have been the ones adversely affected by the injury bug.

It is human nature for executives to want to take a look at the trade market and see if there are any players that can immediately help right the ship and make up for a lackluster start to the season but it is difficult to image a scenario where Zach LaVine, the player most closely associated with the Lakers in trade rumors, would be of any immediate benefit.

His stats are not exponentially better than Reaves and he has not exactly done much to help his own Chicago Bulls team make the most of its season to this point.

Based on Buha's report, the Lakers are doing the right thing by taking the time to look at the pieces they have in place, waiting for the team to be whole, and then assessing what they have at that time.

Otherwise, all of the goodwill and excitement the front office created by the bevvy of moves it made prior to the start of the season will have been for naught. That any trade would necessitate moving some of those pieces and hoping there is in-season chemistry built rather quickly only enhances the need to let things play out and see exactly what Los Angeles has on its hands.