After some midseason trades, the Los Angeles Lakers seem to be perhaps one piece short of being a true championship-caliber team.
The Lakers were chugging along under .500 through the first half of the season when the arrivals of Rui Hachimura, D’Angelo Russell and Jarred Vanderbilt turned everything around. The three of them generated enough change to take the team to the Western Conference Finals, only to get swept there by the Denver Nuggets.
