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This trade is purely in the realm of the Lakers thinking that they have a realistic shot at some big time free agents this summer. They get nothing from Dallas except expiring contracts. In exchange, they have to give up two nice young players that could become part of the Mavericks future.
As mentioned above, the Lakers get expiring contracts. Josh McRoberts and Devin Harris will be gone after the season, but Nerlens Noel is an intriguing piece for the Lakers. Noel wants to get paid, but after the season he has had would any team be willing to give him 10 million dollars a year. The Lakers could find a way to keep him for a reasonable contract that will not impact their pursuit of Lebron James and Paul George. Noel is a nice player and would fit well in Luke Walton’s uptempo style. He is a nice rim protector and is an above average athlete as a big man.
The Mavericks on the other hand get Jordan Clarkson and Julius Randle in return. Clarkson is a scorer that can be a nice 6th man off the bench as a way to provide some instant offense. He is putting up 15 points per game in only 23 minutes. The Mavericks could use that kind of scoring. Julius Randle is in the same vein of Nerlens Noel above. Randle is a nice player and has shown some flashes this season. He wants to get paid and it is unclear what kind of market value he may have. The Mavericks could find a way to fit him into their roster with a decent contract and potentially cut the years short to be flexible moving forward. Randle has struggled to get minutes with the Lakers and there are some grumblings about Randle’s attitude that Rick Carlisle will not put up with.
In all, I like this trade for both teams. It gives two nice young free agent to be players a chance to reset with a new team and gives the Lakers more cap space.
All stats courtesy of basketball-reference.