Was the Lakers’ trade for Dorian Finney-Smith actually good?

The Lakers got better, but they might be all out of moves

Due to being the most popular team in the country and employing the most famous player in the world, when the Los Angeles Lakers do something, it’s newsworthy. I’m not bemoaning this fact, but it does lead to an altered reality. Everything they do is magnified toward the extremes, and their most recent trade is a great example. On December 29th, the Lakers traded D’Angelo Russell and Maxwell Lewis to the Brooklyn Nets for Dorian Finney-Smith, Shake Milton, and three second-round picks.

The general consensus is the Lakers did well, while the Nets did not. And while I don’t think it was a horrible trade for the Lakers from a value perspective, I believe the optimism is another shining example of Lakers' exceptionalism. So let me elaborate.

At its barebones, the Nets got the best player and all of the draft capital in the deal. That alone should make you wonder how great of a trade this was for the Lakers. Yes, D’Angelo Russell had his failings in the playoffs and was moved to the bench this season, but he’s a better basketball player than Dorian Finney-Smith. Now, it’s fair to say, and I’d agree with the sentiment, that Finney-Smith is a better fit with the Lakers than Russell, but that suggests fit is holding the Lakers back and not talent, which doesn’t pass the smell test.

The Lakers are 18-13 with a point differential of a 13-18 team. Their -2.1 net rating is 20th in the league and 12th in the Western Conference. This is a bad team masquerading as a playoff contender. And while I applaud them for making a move, Dorian Fucking-Smith isn’t turning them into a contender even if they had kept D’Angelo Russell. And without Russell, the Lakers now only have two guys, LeBron James and Austin Reaves, who can credibly create a shot.

For as much as Russell has been maligned by Laker fans for his poor playoff performances, he hasn’t been the problem this season. With Russell on the court, the Lakers have an offensive rating of 116.6, and without him, it falls to 110.9, per PBPStats. I’m not the biggest fan of Russell, but the Lakers desperately needed his shot creation. So while a starting lineup of LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Finney-Smith, Reaves, and Rui Hachimura is an upgrade on what they had before, their bench units might post a sub-100 offensive rating.

Then there is the opportunity cost. Needless to say, the Lakers need to make another move to become a real contender. Proponents of this trade will say, “Hey, look, they still have their first-round picks,” which is true, but they just made the financial aspect of any trade significantly more costly.

D’Angelo Russell’s $18.6 million expiring contract was perfect to pair with Rui Hachimura’s $17 million salary as the bulk of a superstar-level trade. Now, with Russell gone, for the Lakers to add a player making over $30 million (AKA a really good player) they’ll have to ship out three or four players instead of two. For a team that isn’t very deep to begin with and heavily reliant on a 40-year-old, having next to no depth is not exactly a big-brain maneuver.

Just as an example, let’s look at Bradon Ingram. Ingram would fit nicely next to Davis and James and is making a tidy $36 million. Russell, Hachimura, the last guy on the bench, and all the picks would have gotten them Ingram with little fuss. Now, without Russell’s salary, the deal would take Hachimura, Gabe Vincent, Jarred Vanderbilt, plus all the picks, and that’s to get a good player on a relatively cheap deal. Jimmy Butler is making $48.7 million, and Zach LaVine is at $43 million. Does turning Hachimura, Vanderbilt, and a first-round pick into Jerami Grant and his remaining $132 million sound like something the Lakers should or would do?

By moving Russell for Finney-Smith, the Lakers have quietly taken themselves out of the running for the impact player they desperately need, which gets to my final point. This trade was lip service. It’s quiet quitting. It’s a move to say, “Look, we tried,” when the goal was to make it untenable to actually go for it. With Russell’s salary slot gone, the Lakers would have to run out the worst bench in the league to add an impact player which would probably hurt as much as it helps. Sure, they could make a few small moves on the margins, but this team isn’t a few marginal gains away from anything other than another first-round humiliation. This is an average team at best that made itself slightly better by sacrificing the chance to improve significantly.

In a vacuum, the Lakers improved and didn’t have to give up a first-round pick. But when you look at where they now are, and where they need to be, they’ve absolutely shot themselves in the foot. At its most insidious, this is a trade designed to insulate the front office and ownership group from cries of inaction while simultaneously creating a scenario where they can justifiably do nothing. Or, it’s utter and complete incompetence. Neither is good, and neither was this trade.

For any inquiries about work, discussion, and the like you can email me at nevin.l.brown@gmail.com.