Los Angeles Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka has been patiently waiting for a trade to improve the team for over a year now and finally struck on Sunday, sending D’Angelo Russell, Maxwell Lewis and three future second round draft picks to the Brookyln Nets for Dorian Finney-Smith and Shake Milton.

Pelinka said he would take around 30 games to assess the team’s needs and he made this deal 31 games into the 2024-25 season with the team sitting in the Western Conference playoff mix at 18-13.

Acquiring a player like Finney-Smith will give the Lakers some added defensive toughness, although it is also hard to see Russell go considering how much success he had in his second stint with the team.

After the trade was announced, Pelinka released a statement thanking Russell while also talking about what Finney-Smith will bring to the team.

“We want to thank D’Angelo for his second stint with us, where we celebrated some great moments and accomplishments on the court together. We want to wish him and Maxwell Lewis well in their future endeavors with the Brooklyn Nets. With this trade, we are thrilled to add the physicality, toughness and elite shooting that Dorian Finney-Smith will bring to our core. We also greatly value the playmaking of Shake Milton. We are excited for our fans to get both of these players out on the court.”

With the Lakers not giving up either of their tradable first round picks in this deal, Pelinka may be positioned to make another move or two between now and the trade deadline in February.

Lakers coach JJ Redick is fan of Dorian Finney-Smith

Lakers head coach JJ Redick has long been a fan of Dorian Finney-Smith, who he was teammates with on the Dallas Mavericks and spoke about at the time on his podcast.

“The one guy I just gotta shout out because I love watching him play and I’ve played against him now for a few years and he does so many things that just don’t show up in the box score and that’s Dorian Finney-Smith, as he’s affectionately known as ‘Dodo.’ Dodo, he’s just an awesome player. He’s a player that can fit on any team in the NBA. I think he’s incredibly valuable,” Redick said. “Great defender, hustles, makes all the plays. He had a block last night, we had some miscommunication in transition and I think it was a six-point game or eight-point game in the fourth and Khris Middleton came down the middle of the lane and Dodo came out of nowhere and blocked the shot. They originally called it a foul, we got a challenge on it, it was obviously a clean block when you saw it on replay, so we got the jump ball. Then from there, we just controlled the rest of the game and pulled away, it was a huge play and he makes plays like that all the time.”

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