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On Sunday, the Los Angeles Lakers made one of the first big trades of the 2024-25 NBA season by shipping D'Angelo Russell, Maxwell Lewis, and three second round picks to the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for Dorian Finney-Smith and Shake Milton, as originally reported by Shams Charania of ESPN. With the move, the Lakers move on from Russell, who appeared to be mentally checked out at times this year, and land a versatile three and D wing in Finney-Smith.
Finney-Smith fits the shooting and defense, positionless basketball archetype of what virtually every team is searching for in 2024, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that the wing had plenty of suitors on the trade market.
Recently, NBA insider Marc Stein took to X, formerly Twitter, to break down another offer that the Lakers had to one-up in their attempt to strike a deal with the Nets.
“Memphis was said to be offering a first-round pick protected past the lottery along with John Konchar and Luke Kennard for Finney-Smith,” reported Stein. “The Lakers, by packaging three second-rounders with D'Angelo Russell and Maxwell Lewis, will acquire Finney-Smith and Shake Milton, per ESPN.”
The Grizzlies indeed could use some versatility along the wing, which is the one true Achilles heel on a team that otherwise looks elite on both ends of the floor so far this year.
How much better did the Lakers get?
Defense and perimeter shooting have been the two main issues that have plagued the Lakers over the last season-plus, and so it shouldn't come as a surprise that when Russell isn't hitting his shots, he would be an obvious candidate to use as a trade chip in search of a more reliable defensive stopper.
Finney-Smith is currently shooting a career high of 44 percent from beyond the arc a third of the way through the 2024-25 season, and he figures to provide some much-needed versatility to a Lakers squad that doesn't have a ton of reliable options on the wing, with players like Cam Reddish, Max Christie, and Dalton Knecht playing sporadically as JJ Redick looks to find the best version of his team.
At this rate, it's unclear when Finney-Smith will make his Lakers debut. The Lakers do have a couple of days off before their next game, which is on Tuesday evening at home against the league-best Cleveland Cavaliers.
