The Los Angeles Lakers appear to have a firm plan in place ahead of the trade deadline. It is clear at this point in the season that LA needs to shake things up and it looks like Talen Horton-Tucker could be getting the short end of the stick.

Rumors have been circling about the Lakers parting ways with Russell Westbrook, but as it seems, Horton-Tucker has emerged as the team's sacrificial lamb. According to Dan Woike of the Los Angeles Times, the Lakers have already placed the 6-foot-4 shooting guard on the trade block:

According to people with knowledge of the situation, the team is shopping 21-year-old Talen Horton-Tucker in trade discussions. Rival general managers believe the Lakers value Horton-Tucker, but they lack the mid-range contracts needed to put together a deal to upgrade their roster and understand no significant trade is getting made without him.

It doesn't sound like the Lakers are shopping Horton-Tucker around just for the sake of potentially being able to trade him. Based on the above report, LA does not really have any other choice. The general belief is that the Lakers consider THT to be a valuable asset (the fact that they extended his deal last summer serves as a testament to this fact), but at this point, they are left with no other option but to offer him to opposing teams.

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Westbrook's gargantuan contract makes him virtually untradeable and the Lakers don't really have any other assets outside of Horton-Tucker. It appears that LA is determined to shake things up within the squad ahead of the second half of the season and unfortunately for him, it sounds like THT is going to be leaving Hollywood in the coming weeks.

The big question now is who the Lakers can get in exchange for Horton-Tucker. At 21 years old, THT still has a lot of upside, but the fact that he's been in a slump this season only decreases his market value. The Lakers seem desperate, though—as they should be—so it's very much possible that they end up pulling the trigger on a deal that they would have otherwise passed on had they been in a better position.