Lakers newsletter: Are your fantasy Lakers trades actually good?

Hey everyone and welcome to the Times Lakers Newsletter. No clever opening this week. I hope all of you are safe from these awful fires. Please stay informed whether with The Times or with local government agencies.

Anyways, on to the basketball.

The golden rule of trading (and why the Lakers miss D’Angelo Russell)

I, dear reader, am no better than many of you. I too love going on one of the many internet contraptions and plugging in players and contracts trying to cook up the perfect trade for the Lakers.

For me, it’s an exercise in trying to understand what could be out there for the team, who fits with whom, what salaries work in deals and what salaries don’t.

So Wednesday, I opened the computer, cracked my knuckles and got to work on a deal that would’ve gotten the Lakers more athletic, more rebounding and more scoring — all without costing them both of their first-round picks. I felt like a maestro — a basketball genius hiding in plain sight with the answer to the Lakers’ unsolvable roster problems.

I sent my work to an employee of the team the Lakers would be doing business with on this deal to gauge their opinion. Here, unedited is the first response I got:

“LOL.”

Here is the second response:

“Why would we do that?”

It was a little humbling, but an important reminder as we move headfirst into trade season. Just because you view things through a very specific lens, you as a Lakers fan, me as a reporter who watches them play every other night, it doesn’t mean the rest of the league sees things this way.

They, in fact, have their own interests to protect. And it’s not to create some imaginary “Lakers tax” or to stick it to a franchise with more titles than all but one. No, it’s because teams are only willing to help in trades if they can help themselves too.

This brings us to D’Angelo Russell, the player the Lakers sent out in the deal to acquire Dorian Finney-Smith, the Lakers landing one of the premiere role players on the market a month before the deadline.

So how did they do it? Well, they sent out something that, it turns out, was quite valuable — Russell’s sizable expiring contract. That piece of the deal kept the Lakers from having to include the first-round pick Brooklyn has sought for more than a season since Finney-Smith became available via trade.

In addition to missing Russell’s ball-handling, playmaking and shooting — and to be clear, the Lakers will miss those things to some degree — not having him on the roster also should make your trade machine masterpieces harder to build.

Assuming you’re not trading LeBron James, Anthony Davis or Austin Reaves, the Lakers will largely be sending out players with multiple years left on their deals (in Jarred Vanderbilt’s case, four years left). And teams, generally speaking, want to be compensated for taking on contracts with years left on them, which then would increase the price of draft capital being sent out by the Lakers, which then would make the trade look way worse with the Lakers giving up some of their final draft pieces to pay a tax on the remaining years on their contract. And if you’re trading a player on an expiring minimum deal to a team with no plans for that player (beyond a possible contract buyout), well, you pay for that with picks and/or cash too.

None of this even accounts for the depth issues you create when you start bundling two, three or four of these players in trades to gut a rotation in order to return a bigger salary.

Now this shouldn’t keep you from trying to solve the puzzle — it’s not going to stop me. But, it should serve a reminder that this is, in fact, a complicated puzzle.

As the deadline gets closer, prices, naturally, should dip some, but the clamoring for the team to do something and do it now, well, it’s just not that easy. And it’s certainly not as easy as getting the trade machines to say that the deal is legal within salary cap rules.

Vanderbilt closing in on a return?

Jarred Vanderbilt hasn’t played for the Lakers since Feb. 1.

(Michael Wyke / Associated Press)

Before the Lakers delivered a pretty big clunker Tuesday night in Dallas, JJ Redick had some positive news about forward Vanderbilt, who has yet to make his season debut due to a pair of offseason foot surgeries.

Vanderbilt, who hasn’t played since Feb. 1 of last year, participated in 5-on-5 with team staffers on Monday. The plan, Redick said, is for him to take part in 5-on-5 action with either the Lakers players or their G-League affiliate ahead of his full-time return to play.

Expectations, though, should be realistic, Redick said.

“Obviously his defensive versatility and being able to guard up or down will be great for our group. But I would just say, initially coming back, it’s going to be in small doses,” Redick said. “That’s just the reality. He hasn’t played basketball in almost a year, we have to be cognizant of building him up for, hopefully, a playoff run.”

Redick said the biggest challenge for Vanderbilt once he returns will be believing that he’s actually healthy.

“I think it starts with trusting your body, and that’s something that any athlete who has had a serious injury or had surgery knows. And it doesn’t happen in one game. It doesn’t happen in two games. Sometimes it takes a little bit of time to really trust your body,” he said. “And then, the conditioning piece would probably be the other one. Those are probably the two biggest things.”

But it seems like the Lakers will at least be getting that process started sooner than later.

In case you missed it

After loss to Rockets, LeBron James says Lakers must ‘get uncomfortable’ to be great

Analysis: It’s a big month for the Lakers as trade deadline looms

LeBron James breaks another Michael Jordan record in Lakers’ win over Hawks

JJ Redick responds to Charles Barkley’s ‘dead man walking’ criticism: ‘Don’t care’

With Anthony Davis out, LeBron James and Max Christie lead Lakers past Portland

LeBron James ‘happy’ Bryce committed to Arizona. Will dad stick around NBA to play with second son?

Austin Reaves and new-look Lakers are encouraged but can’t beat NBA-best Cavaliers

Hernández: Lakers go all-in on Austin Reaves and will learn whether he can become an all-star

New Laker Dorian Finney-Smith excited to try to win with LeBron instead of guarding him

LeBron James says he could — but won’t — play at a high level for five to seven more years

Song of the week

“Trouble” by TV on the Radio.

Just listen to the chorus. And again, be safe.