4 Los Angeles Lakers playing in their final games wearing purple and gold

1. Rui Hachimura could join D'Lo in an outgoing trade package

This one is more of a stretch, but Rui Hachimura is one of the Lakers' few semi-valuable trade chips making decent money ($17 million next season). If the Lakers engineer a significant trade, especially of the Trae Young or Donovan Mithcell variety, it will require outgoing salaries to match. Russell doesn't make enough to land the league's true stars on his own. There's a strong chance Hachimura ends up in a blockbuster trade package right alongside Russell.

The Lakers clearly like Hachimura, and he has been quite successful since moving back to the starting five. For all his flaws, it's hard to find 6-foot-8 wings who can match Hachimura's physicality as a scorer. He's averaging 12.0 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 1.1 assists on .515/.400/.728 splits. Once the summer arrives, he will be in the penultimate year of his contract. Teams around the league will view the 26-year-old as a positive asset.

It's clear the Lakers want to maintain their investment in Hachimura, but orchestrating a splashy trade to appease LeBron and push Los Angeles closer to the contenders' circle is a no-brainer. No team has better luck attracting stars than the franchise that can claim Kareem, Magic, Kobe, and now LeBron. While Hachimura is an excellent complementary piece, he is simply nowhere near good enough to keep out of trade conversations when push comes to shove. That is especially true since the only other significant tradable salary on the roster is Austin Reaves ($13 million).

It's not hard to predict the arc of this Lakers season. Los Angeles is going to string together a few wins down the stretch, probably get out of the play-in tournament, then get trounced by a superior opponent in the playoffs. The West is loaded, with far deeper, more coherent rosters at the top of the conference. OKC is young, Minnesota is inexperienced — whatever excuses you want to cook up, the Lakers will not be favored in that series.

Their conference finals run last season felt more like a fluke than a sustainable model. Maybe the Lakers prove me wrong. We should never fully count out LeBron James. But, if all goes as expected, Hachimura's name will end up in a lot of trade rumors in the offseason.