Trade Grades: Dorian Finney-Smith to Lakers

Trade Grades: Dorian Finney-Smith to Lakers

Trade season is here! While we are over one month from the deadline, Rob Pelinka and the Los Angeles Lakers had a busy weekend! They swooped in to acquire Brooklyn Nets forward Dorian Finney-Smith in a four-player trade Sunday, the first of what could be multiple moves for Los Angeles ahead of the Feb. 6 deadline. Who won the deal? Let’s examine!

Los Angeles Lakers Receive: Dorian Finney-Smith, Shake Milton

Skinny: The Los Angeles swooped in and acquired Finney-Smith, who was expected to be one of the more coveted 3-and-D wings on the market, for a fairly inexpensive price. He’s having the best shooting season of his career, knocking down 43.5 percent from 3-point range, and the Lakers don’t take-or-make many 3s. He should help the team’s overall spacing. Finney-Smith can also defend at least 2-3 positions at an above-average level. Outside of Anthony Davis, the Lakers, who are No. 20 and adjusted defense with the 8th-highest effective field goal percentage allowed, lacked the personnel to defend consistently well on a night-to-night basis.

By acquiring Finney-Smith, they shaved $3.5 million from their cap while keeping all of their first-round picks. They don’t have to trade those picks, but not trading a first for Finney-Smith is a win in it of itself. They did excellent business here.

Grade: A

Brooklyn Nets Receive: D’Angelo Russell, Maxwell Lewis, 3 Second-Round Picks (2027, 2030, 2031)

Skinny: The Nets have surpassed people’s expectations through the first 30-plus games to begin the 2024-25 season, but were still nine games below .500 and far from any sort of contention. They were bound to be sellers–and sending off Finney-Smith was the second of what could be at least 3-4 moves ahead of the deadline.

They clear up $15 million in cap space next season by acquiring Russell (expiring) and trading Finney-Smith, who had one more year left on his deal beyond this season. They also add to their second-round pick treasure chest, where they now have 16. A couple of those second-rounders (2030, 2031) have a chance to be more valuable than your average second-rounder, even though the hit rate for players outside of the top-20 is low as it is. I don’t know if they will buy out Russell, who can only go to a limited amount of teams because he is making nearly $6 million more than the $12.8 million mid-level exception for this season. If they do, that move may not be immediate.

Report: There are ‘active discussions’ between Grizzlies, Nets for Dorian Finney-Smith

I don’t love the return, though I understand why the Grizzlies’ reported package for Luke Kennard (who can veto any trade), John Konchar and a heavily-protected first. Could Brooklyn have waited for a bigger bidding war to appear? Sure. But for a team that is looking to get back into the #CaptureTheFlagg™ sweepstakes, trading a player that would help you win games right now was probably going to happen sooner rather than later if the right deal came about.

Grade: B-

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