A 3-Team Deal That Needs to Happen by 2024 NBA Trade Deadline
Two months into the NBA season, we now have enough evidence to make some informed takes on a number of teams.
The Los Angeles Lakers are in the bottom half of the league in points per 100 possessions and need some firepower. The Atlanta Hawks have a bottom-five defense and have to be thinking about pulling the plug on the Trae Young-Dejounte Murray experiment. The well-below-.500 Toronto Raptors are now months (maybe even years) overdue for a reboot, and Saturday's OG Anunoby trade suggests they might finally be willing to take that path.
So why not address all three teams' issues with a single trade?
That's exactly what we do below.
The Trade
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Before we get into why each individual team would do this, as always, we'll present a snapshot of the entire deal in one slide.
Los Angeles Lakers Receive: Dejounte Murray and Garrett Temple
Los Angeles Lakers Lose: D'Angelo Russell, Taurean Prince, Max Christie and a top-10 protected 2029 first-round pick
Atlanta Hawks Receive: Pascal Siakam, Dennis Schröder and Max Christie
Atlanta Hawks Lose: Dejounte Murray, De'Andre Hunter and a 2029 first-round pick
Toronto Raptors Receive: D'Angelo Russell, De'Andre Hunter, Taurean Prince, a top-10 protected 2029 first-round pick from Los Angeles and a 2029 first-round pick from Atlanta
Toronto Raptors Lose: Pascal Siakam, Dennis Schröder and Garrett Temple
Feel free to debate the young players and/or picks involved here. I'm sure I could be convinced to make some minor adjustments.
But before you throw the whole thing out, keep scrolling for more in-depth explanations on why this makes sense for everyone involved.
Lakers Add a (Potential) Third Star
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Lakers Receive: Dejounte Murray and Garrett Temple
Lakers Lose: D'Angelo Russell, Taurean Prince, Max Christie and a top-10 protected 2029 first-round pick
Dejounte Murray could come with some potential spacing issues, but the Lakers are reportedly interested in adding him.
And as a pure talent play, the interest actually makes some sense.
Murray's only made 35.6 percent of his threes since the start of last season, but he's in the midst of his third straight campaign with 20-plus points per game. He's a dramatically better defender than D'Angelo Russell, and he at least has some experience playing off the ball from his time alongside Trae Young.
In L.A., he'd almost always be facing the opposition's third for fourth best defender too, depending on how opponents feel about Austin Reaves. In that role, Murray would be free to focus on defense and attacking closeouts.
In terms of a one-to-one comparison, Murray's almost certainly an upgrade over Russell. Losing the upside of Max Christie, the potential upside of a future first-rounder and the steady handedness of veteran Taurean Prince would likely give Lakers fans some pause, but the remaining rotation would have a higher ceiling than the current one.
Garrett Temple is mostly here for salary-matching purposes and the fact that each team needs to be connected the other two in a three-team trade, but his experience might be a nice addition to the team's third string, too.
Hawks Ditch the Two-Point Guard Experiment
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Hawks Receive: Pascal Siakam, Dennis Schröder and Max Christie
Hawks Lose: Dejounte Murray, De'Andre Hunter and a 2029 first-round pick
The OG Anunoby trade feels more like a first domino than an isolated deal for the Toronto Raptors.
The Atlanta Hawks and one of Toronto's remaining, oft-in-the-rumor mill forwards, Pascal Siakam, have seemingly been circling each other for years.
A trade that moves Murray and lands Siakam instantly rebalances Atlanta's roster a bit without surrendering a ton of talent.
In terms of raw production, Siakam and Murray aren't dramatically different. The bigger Siakam is just a far easier fit alongside Young.
Since the start of last season, the Hawks are minus-0.5 points per 100 possessions when Young and Murray are both on the floor, minus-2.1 when Murray plays without Young and plus-2.8 when Young plays without Murray.
This deal doesn't end there for Atlanta, though.
Dennis Schröder gives them a solid backup point guard behind Young. Having him instead of Murray makes it easier to plug Bogdan Bogdanović into the starting five too. Max Christie gives the Hawks at least a little upside on the wing.
Moving on from the No. 4 pick in 2019, De'Andre Hunter, may feel a little premature for some fans, but he's already been overtaken by Jalen Johnson in terms of apparent potential and ability to help right now. There's plenty of leftover talent at the wing and forward positions for the Hawks, especially with Siakam and Christie coming back.
Raptors Start the Long Overdue Restart
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Raptors Receive: D'Angelo Russell, De'Andre Hunter, Taurean Prince, a top-10 protected 2029 first-round pick from Los Angeles and a 2029 first-round pick from Atlanta
Raptors Lose: Pascal Siakam, Dennis Schröder and Garrett Temple
This deal is obviously and almost entirely about the draft compensation for the Toronto Raptors.
If they're going to start a rebuild around Scottie Barnes, they need draft capital to find shooters in the draft (or trade for them sooner).
D'Angelo Russell being on a very movable contract means he could be re-routed any time between this deal and next season's trade deadline, too (he's on an $18.7 million player option for 2024-25).
Although there may not be a ton of untapped potential from De'Andre Hunter (he's 26 years old and has career averages of 4.1 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 0.7 steals), he could be part of a moderately interesting and mostly positionless crop of forwards in Toronto.
Barnes, Hunter and RJ Barrett (who came over in the OG Anunoby trade) could switch all over the floor, and the latter two could, at least in theory, space the floor around Barnes' drives and pick-and-roll forays.
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