1. D’Angelo Russell, Los Angeles Lakers
The Russell sign-and-trade might not be an ideal situation for either franchise if you’re of a pessimistic bend. Not only would the Lakers essentially need to fill out the rest of the roster with minimum players, but the Raptors might pay above market value for a player like D-Lo,
Russell’s new deal would likely have to be somewhere around the $22 million player option VanVleet turned down, and the Lakers might need to get a third team involved. If all of those things can happen, the Raptors can get a young, proven point guard to replace VanVleet for the next few seasons.
The Toronto Raptors might land D’Angelo Russell.
Russell is in the same camp as Jordan Poole and Dillon Brooks. While they crashed out of the postseason following some very poor performances, that is not necessarily indicative of who they can be in an 82-game stretch. As such, Toronto could nab them for less than market value.
Russell is a bigger guard with All-Star pedigree that can create for himself and others whole shooting well from 3-point range. While he’s very different from VanVleet, he has many of the traits that turned VanVleet from an undrafted dice roll into an expensive star.