The two big reasons why the Lakers traded for Patrick Beverley

The Los Angeles Lakers finally decided to improve their roster for the upcoming season by trading the two young players, Talen Horton-Tucker and Stanley Johnson to the Utah Jazz in exchange for 14-year-veteran Patrick Beverley. This was a decision to give LeBron James the chance to win another championship before his retirement.

According to Marc Stein, the Lakers had two reasons to trade for Patrick Beverley. “1) It became apparent that a trade for Kyrie Irving would not be available in the near term after Kevin Durant rescinded his trade demand in Brooklyn,” explained the NBA insider.

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“2) LeBron signed a max contract extension with the Lakers on Aug. 18 that firmly steered the franchise into an urgent win-now mode. Swapping Horton-Tucker for the 34-year-old point guard certainly qualifies as a win-now move for the Lakers, but Beverley has to stay on the floor and deliver to validate the decision to abandon Horton-Tucker when they did,” continued Stein.

The Lakers let go a couple of veterans and replaced them with young players. But now, after the trade for Beverley, they went back on their plans. This might not be a bad decision as Beverley will improve their defense as they were in the bottom ten in defensive efficiency. Now they have to upgrade their offense and they can be competitive.

Will the Lakers regret trading THT?

The Lakers will be on a win-now mentality until 2027. That's if they don't trade their first-round picks before the start of the season. Talen Horton-Tucker had a lot of upside, but the Lakers could wait to see if he could play up to his potential.