Who should the Lakers be targeting at the trade deadline?.

With the trade deadline approaching, which players should the Lakers be looking to acquire to make another second-half push this season?

It seems that, no matter what the expectations were coming into the season, the Lakers have arrived at the trade deadline each year looking for a change. And not like a “tune-up, changing parts around” type of change but a “needing a big spark for the second half of the season” type of change.

This season, the Lakers have stumbled around in the month since winning the In-Season Tournament. While injuries have played a notable role in that, underperforming has also impacted that. And there are some issues that have arisen with the roster, namely the need for shooting and a backup big man.

However, the players the Lakers have been linked to haven’t been all that plentiful, at least so far. A lot of the focus was on Zach LaVine, though that all seems dead in the water now. Dejounte Murray has taken his place, but it’s going to take quite the negotiations and compromises to get that one over the finish line.

Outside of that, though, there has been little more than suggested names for the Lakers to target. Which brings us to the point of this article:

Who do YOU think the Lakers should trade for?

Ye,s I am in fact opening up the floor to your trade machine suggestions. In the comments below, drop in your trade ideas and, at the end of the week, I’ll take some of the best ones and include them in an article to further discuss. The more original they are — we’ve all seen trades for Murray and LaVine at this point — the better.

But here are the ground rules:

• Keep it realistic. And not in a Lakers exceptionalism way, but in a real way. If the Hawks say they want Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura for Murray, then they aren’t settling for Maxwell Lewis and Gabe Vincent
• No, multi-team trades are not realistic. Think about how hard you have to work to make that trade go through on the trade machine and then imagine what it takes for actual GMs to actually do it
• If you are frustrated with a Lakers player or think he doesn’t have value, remember the league is watching those same games. If you don’t think Jaxson Hayes should be in the NBA, you can’t then also trade him for something of value

Aside from that, the floor is open. Let’s see how creative you can get. If you want to know what picks the Lakers have, we have that covered for you. And, spoiler, it isn’t many.

Drop in those trades and those screenshots. Let’s see what you can cook up and if you can fix the Lakers.