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After the Los Angeles Lakers traded for Luka Doncic, sending away their elite big Anthony Davis to the Dallas Mavericks, the point of emphasis for the team has been to find a center for the future.
The Lakers were about to trade for Mark Williams of the Charlotte Hornets, but the trade was rescinded due to a failed physical, and there have been reports from Doncic's camp sharing his reaction.
Williams had the age and talent to be with Doncic and Los Angeles for years to come, but with the trade no longer happening, people were speculating if there was some frustration. However, Marc Stein reports that Doncic understood it might take until the summer to fill that need and was actually “impressed” with how soon the team wanted to address it.
“Yet there has been no tangible dismay from the Doncic camp about his new team walking away from the Williams deal,” Stein wrote.
“Sources told The Stein Line that Doncic, in his first discussion about roster construction with Lakers vice president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka, told Pelinka that he understood it might take until the summer to make that addition … and came away impressed by how swiftly the Lakers initially moved to try to address that void.”
“There has been no shortage of pessimism circulating leaguewide ever since it emerged that the Hornets were exploring their options to try to resuscitate the trade that Charlotte had any real hope of doing so,” Stein wrote earlier.
“Silver then doused such hopes further by telling reporters at his Saturday news conference that the Hornets had not yet filed a formal protest to appeal the Lakers' decision to walk away from the trade two days after the Feb. 6 trade deadline passed.”
Luka Doncic, Mark Williams pairing could've been positive for Lakers
As the future of the Lakers with Doncic and LeBron James still looks bright, fans were disappointed that the trade for Williams didn't go through. However, as Stein writes, Williams has been injury-prone in the past.
“Williams, though, arrived with an undeniable injury history,” Stein wrote. “He appeared in only 85 of his first 212 possible games with Charlotte (40.1%) and clearly gave the Lakers additional pause when they had the chance to examine him themselves, meaning L.A. will now have to restart its search for an impactful vertical-spacing big man in the offseason.”
Los Angeles was willing to trade Dalton Knecht, Cam Reddish, a 2031 unprotected first-round pick, and a first-round pick swap in 2030 to Charlotte to get Williams. There is no doubt that pairing him with Doncic could have been a match made in heaven due to the big man being a lob threat and the presence needed at the rim.
“Silver did add Saturday that the league office is prepared to ‘see what Charlotte decides to do here,'” Stein wrote on the situation. “Suggesting that the matter is not closed.
“Yet the commissioner also acknowledged that he could not recall a prior instance when ‘there's ever been a challenge because a player has failed a physical,' noting any such challenge would be founded upon ‘a certain level of subjectivity.'”
The Lakers are currently 32-20, which puts them fifth in the West, as coming back from the All-Star break, they will coincidentally take on the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday.