Magic Johnson's first move as president of the Lakers could be a winner
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Lakers announced that Hall of Fame point guard and Lakers' great Magic Johnson would take over as President of Basketball Operations for the organization. Within hours, Johnson made his first move, trading former sixth man of the year Lou Williams to the Rockets for Corey Brewer and a first round draft pick.
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At first, I didn't like this move. It seemed like Magic was trying to move to fast and took the first legit offer that was extended to him. But after looking into the long-term implications of this deal, I think Johnson may have cooked up a winner. Unloading the larger contract of Williams for Brewer obviously helps financially, but it doesn't make them better, as Williams has proven to be the better overall player, but that first round draft pick could very well make a difference NEXT season. If the draft were today, the Lakers would have the third overall pick, and according to the most recent mock draft on DraftExpress, the Lakers could take KU star Josh Jackson with that pick. Adding that Houston pick, a number of talented players could fall to that 27th pick, including Luke Kennard out of Duke, Justin Jackson from UNC or even Harry Giles out of Duke.
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That Houston pick could also turn into some good trade bait to teams looking to get draft picks, like the Brooklyn Nets for example. The Nets traded a ton of future draft picks to get Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, which ended up being a massive failure of an experiment. Since then, the Nets have only had a few draft picks, most of which haven't panned out. Depending on the player(s) involved, it could work out.
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Now let's say that the mock draft is 100% accurate and the Lakers draft Josh Jackson. Jackson, a 6'8 small forward has better size than the Lakers number two pick last year, Brandon Ingram. The Lakers could very easily trade either of those player for some solid role players. I personally can't wait to see how Magic plays this summer. Can he bring big time free agents back to LA? Can he make the moves necessary to turn the them back into contenders?
