After making it to the Western Conference Finals last year and making some solid moves during the NBA offseason, the Los Angeles Lakers were expected to be a force to be reckoned with this season and a potential title contender.
Unfortunately for Los Angeles, the team has struggled to find its identity once again and is sitting at .500 near the halfway point of the 2023-24 NBA regular season, which is far lower than the team had hoped they’d be at this point.
Even though the Lakers have had some impressive wins over the course of the regular season thus far, like beating the Los Angeles Clippers (twice), Oklahoma City Thunder (twice) and winning the league’s first-ever In-Season Tournament, the storied franchise is still struggling and doesn’t seem like a team that would stand a chance in a seven-game series against some of the league’s elite teams.
That said, the Lakers are one of the notable teams that are expected to make some moves before the NBA trade deadline on February 8, with the team potentially going after guard Collin Sexton of the Utah Jazz, according to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin via KSL Sports.
Even though Sexton isn’t a potential game-changing talent like Dejounte Murray or Zach LaVine, he may help this struggling Lakers team by bolstering the backcourt in Los Angeles and bringing in some new energy that could help in the second half of the season.
In 42 games so far this season, Sexton averaged 16.9 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 3.9 assists per game while shooting 48.9% from the field and 37.1% from beyond the arc.