Skip to content

Walton: Warriors' dominance means Lakers shouldn't trade for superstar

Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports / Action Images

The Golden State Warriors (67-15) and Los Angeles Lakers (26-56) are on total opposite ends of the spectrum in the NBA, with Golden State possibly set to go undefeated en route to a second title in three years, while the Lakers are currently rebuilding through the draft to one day get back into contention.

Lakers head coach Luke Walton - who served as an assistant and even interim coach under the Warriors' Steve Kerr for two seasons - understands how enormous the gap is between his current team and his former.

"I joke a lot. I said 'if there's a time to be rebuilding, this is the time to do it.' The Warriors don't look like they're going anywhere for a while," Walton said during a recent appearance on "The Full 48" with Howard Beck. "They're pretty damn good right now."

A quickfire solution to vaulting Los Angeles back into the playoff picture, at the very least, would be to acquire a superstar talent via a trade, with names like Russell Westbrook and Paul George having been tossed around in rumors on numerous occasions.

It's still too early to tell whether there's a superstar in the making on the Lakers' roster, though, so rather than sacrifice that during a period where the Warriors are leaps and bounds ahead of the pack, Walton would hesitate to move the pieces he has at his disposal to expedite the process of being relevant again.

"Obviously there's players in this league that if you can get, it's really tough to say no to because the superstars in this league are good enough to make you a contender or not," Walton added. "It's the difference between having a very good team with lots of role players or having a team that can actually, legitimately win an NBA championship.

"My only caution would be let's not give up too much of our young core for one superstar because, like we just talked about before, let’s not forget that those Golden State Warriors are just a little bit north of us and it's going to take a lot more than one superstar to dethrone them from the West. There's that fine line in trying to get there quicker rather than developing our own guys. I think Rob (Pelinka) and Magic (Johnson) are very aware of that. They're constantly looking at the best way to get us to be a true contender, not just on paper."

Four of the Lakers' five top scorers at the conclusion of the 2016-17 campaign (D'Angelo Russell, Jordan Clarkson, Julius Randle, and Brandon Ingram) were 24 years of age or younger, while key contributors Larry Nance Jr. and Ivica Zubac are 24 and 20, respectively.

Los Angeles is also in possession of the second overall pick in this summer's draft, with UCLA playmaker Lonzo Ball the consensus favorite to be heading to Hollywood.

Daily Newsletter

Get the latest trending sports news daily in your inbox