This series of articles takes five shots at predicting trades that will go down at the 2025-26 NBA trade deadline. The second one has the Lakers and Blazers swapping role players to address each of their respective biggest needs: defense and shooting.
POR Gets:
LAL Gets:
Robert Williams III
POR 2027 2nd
ATL 2027 2nd
MIN 2027 2nd
Why Trading for Rui Hachimura Makes Sense for the Blazers
Ask any Blazers fan, and they will tell you that the team’s biggest weakness is their three-point shooting. Portland has pieced together a .500 record despite having the second-worst three-point shooting percentage in the league.
Deni Avdija has turned into a full-fledged star, and his game is built on drive and kick opportunities — he’s averaging more than 20 drives and 2.7 assists off those drives per game. A stationary shooter such as Hachimura, who is shooting over 40% this season, to roam the arc and knock down catch-and-shoot threes is exactly the release valve that Avdija and the Blazers are looking for to round out their depth chart.
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Robert Williams III and Kris Murray have both been very valuable to Portland this season. Williams has been necessary as a backup big while Yang Hansen learns how to do just about everything necessary to be an NBA player, all the way down to speaking the English language. However, the front office likely feels that Yang is more a part of the future than Williams; if they didn’t believe in the Chinese prospect, they wouldn’t have taken such a big swing in drafting him.
Murray has started numerous times in the absence of other wing options who missed time due to injury. While he is a stout defender, he is not a good shooter by any stretch of the imagination. His role and skills are also duplicative to those of Rayan Rupert, who has been a step below Murray in terms of production, but is four years younger.
Blazers Roster Is Full
Portland is also looking to open up two roster spots for two-way breakout role players Caleb Love and Sidy Cissoko. This trade would cover one of those openings.
The Blazers currently have four second-round picks in 2027, and with a roster that’s already full, they won’t need many, if any, of them. The Lakers could likely ask for a fourth pick and get it if they want.
Why Trading for Robert Williams III and Kris Murray Makes Sense for the Lakers
The Lakers are a very poor defensive team right now, and that’s been the case for the majority of the season. Swapping out a shoot-first wing for a defense-first wing would help shore up their biggest weakness, even if Murray is a flawed player.
Williams has been healthy this season, and while his track record for injuries is not good by any means, he at least is showing he can put together a successful season if rested properly. He also brings a defensive focus to the roster and would be a welcome sight for JJ Redick, who has no doubt been frustrated with the bloody-minded frontcourt duo of Deandre Ayton and Jaxson Hayes.
Lakers Need Draft Capital
But perhaps the biggest prize of this trade for the Lakers would be the bevy of second-round draft picks. The Lakers currently hold just six draft selections through 2032. They have just one in the next two seasons — their own 2026 first-round pick.
The Lakers very likely will look towards free agency over the next two seasons to rebuild their roster. They have LeBron’s pricy contract coming off the books after this season, along with three other medium-sized contracts that are set to expire (Hachimura’s included).
Chasing players in free agency is a viable strategy for the Lakers, who are obviously a desired market, but it’s an expensive one. Add in the impending Reaves extension, and the money left for role players to round out the roster will shrink rapidly.
Hitting on second-round draft picks is the best way to fill out those 10th-15th man spots, and if they turn into high-quality players, they pair extremely well with superstars for roster construction. The Lakers will not be able to go very far without drafting some usable players, and they need draft picks to do so.
The amount of assets Portland could give Los Angeles for a player that helps them really only on the side of the ball they’re already good at would benefit them in the long run.
Why This Trade Won’t Happen
The Blazers need Hachimura’s shooting talent, but not too much more so than the Lakers, who are the seventh-worst three-point shooting team themselves. Letting him go for a wing who doesn’t really do anything better than Jarred Vanderbilt would be difficult to reconcile.
While Robert Williams has played regularly this season, he is a fragile player. The market for him might still be weak.
The Lakers do need second-round picks, but there’s likely to be plenty of teams around the league who could offer a chest of second-round picks and would like to do so for a 40+% three-point shooter.
Lastly, the Blazers and Lakers don’t trade with one another. The rival franchises have only ever done so twice in their histories, with the last one coming in 1980.
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