Bruce Brown Jr. Undergoes Knee Surgery. One Less Trade Option for the Lakers.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers

It's been a common theme this offseason: The Lakers are stuck from a roster standpoint, and getting unstuck won't be simple.

The latest illustration of this reality? Even players who are in that second tier of potential trade targets (i.e. non-stars with giant salaries) are getting problematic. Toronto's Bruce Brown underwent arthroscopic surgery last week, and will miss at least the start of training camp, and perhaps some of the start of the year. Brown's name hasn't percolated around the rumor mill much lately, but he's been a reported target for the Lakers for a couple years.

At this point, were the Lakers inclined to make a deal for Brown before the start of the season... well, that gets hard. The Lakers don't have many options, and to use some of them on a guy coming off surgery, before seeing he's healthy could be tough. Realistically, though, whether for Brown or anyone else, would the Lakers be better off at this point waiting to see how things go at the start of the year before making a move?

Learning where their holes really are? What the strengths and weaknesses of this team might be (because they won't be exactly the same as last year's, even with the same roster, given the new regime on the sidelines.

Even a hypothetical with Brown (or anyone making about the 20+ mil would require trading Rui Hachimura or D'Angelo Russell. And with that, there are trade offs. Trade a big like Rui for a smaller player like Brown, and you're sacrificing size and (in this case) shooting and adding to a logjam in the backcourt. Trade Russell and you lose playmaking (if you're not getting a PG back) and (if you're not getting a shooter) 3-point capabilities. You're also relying a lot on Gabe Vincent to be heathy and productive... and for Jarred Vanderbilt and Christian Wood to be the same.

Again, it's complicated, and unlikely to get any less complicated anytime soon... so maybe the best solution is to gather data?

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky

SEGMENT 1: Bruce Brown gets surgery. Another potential trade target is banged up.

SEGMENT 2: What Brown's surgery represents, even when it's not about Brown.

SEGMENT 3: Would you trade Rui for Brown? Russell?

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Point being, when you have rotation players, or perhaps mu