It wasn't the trade people were expecting, necessarily, but it was a pretty important one. Wednesday night, the Lakers agreed to send G/F Talen Horton-Tucker and forward Stanley Johnson to Utah for veteran point guard Patrick Beverley. Assuming Beverley at 34 can keep up his track record of defense and (a slump from distance last year notwithstanding) good 3-point shooting, he'll improve the Lakers in both areas this season. Meanwhile, THT and Johnson both had potential, in different ways, and potential value, in different ways, but neither had a clear path to significant playing time.

So in that sense - one guy in who will play a lot for two guys out who might not have - the Lakers improve.

So what's next? On the surface at least, it appears to be a trade that comes before another trade, in part because it leaves the Lakers with a glut at point guard in Beverley, Russell Westbrook and Kendrick Nunn (on a team already featuring a point guard in LeBron James), but also because Westbrook and Beverley hate each other. Like, a long, rich history of feuding that goes back a decade. It feels kind of untenable ... though it would be great if the Lakers gave us a glimpse of what it could look like, just for entertainment purposes.

So assuming the trade is Westbrook to Indiana for Buddy Hield and Myles Turner (long rumored) would that, along with the Beverley deal, put the Lakers in position to contend? It improves them for sure, but how much?

Finally, while THT still has the potential to be a quality player in the league and carve out a long career, his trade from LA is a cap to a horrible stretch of asset management from the Lakers. Like, they botched this good. And while the team deserves credit for not clinging to an error (many, many errors), you can only get points for undoing bad mistakes so many times. This is not a happy ending where the Lakers come out ahead.

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky

SEGMENT 1: The Lakers are trading for Patrick Beverley.

SEGMENT 2: So what's next? Is Russ soon to follow? Can the Lakers spin themselves back into contention?

SEGMENT 3: The mismanagement of THT, and what he represents about the Lakers front office.

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