Report: Lou Williams Traded To The Houston Rockets

Attention: The stove is hot and the Lakers braintrust is ready to cook.

Whether new Lakers president Magic Johnson, super new GM Rob Pelinka, the extended Buss family, or Lakers shadow GM Kobe Bryant took point on the trade, this is a banger for the Lakers. Lou Williams is having a solid year, but the Lakers are garbage and they don’t have much use for a bench gunner who plays the same position as one of their top young players and shoots more frequently than anyone else on the team. Getting a first round pick back for him is a great return. It won’t be a high pick, but scouts are high on this draft and the Lakers need all the young help they can get. Corey Brewer has been a bit marginalized this season, but maybe he can teach Brandon Ingram to run harder on fast breaks or something.

As for the Rockets, Williams’s ballhandling and scoring will come in handy. He’ll play point guard on a backup unit with Eric Gordon, the best bench scorer in the game, and he’ll add some more pop to that lineup. Williams gets to the foul line a ton, but he’s horrific on defense. In the playoffs, Williams could get picked on and he may have a harder time getting to the foul line. If the Rockets are theoretically gearing up for the Warriors, Williams is a pretty bad fit against their bench unit.