The Lakers are in a good position to win a few games more without damaging their 2023 first round N.B.A. draft position. The Pelicans have the right to swap first round pick with the lakers because of the Anthony Davis trade, and the Pelicans are ranked fourth in the Western Division and the Laker's twelth presently, so winning a few more games won't hurt them at all since the Pelicans will want the swap.
Getting the Wizard's forward Rui Hachimura for three future second round picks was a fair deal since the guy is just in his fourth season and plays reasonably well. It seems as if the Lakers always have too many guards and not enough forwards so Hachimura helps solve the problem although his is no Rick Barry.
Austin Reeves may be the Lakers future point guard at 6'5" with good shooting skills leaving room for the Lakers to find some sort of high end shooting guard someday who can drop in 30 points a game. West and Goodrich, Wilt and Elgin Baylor were good Lakers teams well balanced like the Kareem teams. Lebron James may be an off the bench Laker as long as Tom Brady started at QB, and Anthony Davis signed a long term contract in 2022 so he will be an occassional starter when not injured the other half of the year at forward-center, so the Lakers still could use that Larry Bird forward, Shaquille O'Neal center and unselfish Kobe shooting guard to return to lasting number one ranking. Short of that paradigm the Lakers can solve one of three problems at about 60% success for each of its future draft years with a first round pick. With some long-term players already on the roster its not a bad position to be in- provided they don't slip into their old habit of trading away great young players to get a grass is greener old guy they believe will immediately make them great again.
Perhaps the Lakers have two of four positions of their future team set presently (Reeves and Hachimura). The Lakers need to fill in their future team around young players rather than James and Davis who are better regarded as icing on the cake that win championships. Thus the Lakers need three more pieces of the future team and have three years to get them. Thomas Bryant might be an adequate long-term interim center until the big guy arrives- I am not expert on centers. Dennis Schröder could be the interim shooting guard on the cheap with good point production until the dead-eye three point shooter graduates, and the new tall power forward star is the primary deficit- a Michael Jordan, Larry Bird kind of guy that draws the defense to a lop-sided asymetric position on the court.
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