The Los Angeles Lakers did an excellent job of reinventing the roster on short notice during the 2023 trade deadline. Nobody expected the Lake Show to even make the NBA Playoffs and the team was one of the final four standing, making it to the Western Conference Finals.

The biggest move of the deadline was moving off of Russell Westbrook and getting actual NBA talent in return for him. Before that massive trade, though, the Lakers made what seemed like a smaller trade for Rui Hachimura.

Hachimura came to LA and instantly looked like a different player. While he wasn’t always great in the regular season, his shot-making was apparent and it showed up in a big way in the NBA Playoffs. As a result, the Lakers had no choice but to sign him to a three-year, $51 million contract after the season.

It was already a great trade for the purple and gold that got better now that Hachimura is locked in for multiple years. Even after that, though, the trade continues to get better as the player LA traded for Hachimura likely won’t be in the NBA next season.

There is still a chance for Kendrick Nunn to return to the NBA but at this point in the offseason, there are limited roster spots. If he did not have any interested teams to this point then he probably won’t have a flock of teams looking to sign him in the next six weeks.

This just proves how bad Nunn was for the Lakers and how little he contributed to winning in LA. After missing his entire first season under contract the once-promising guard returned last season and was awful. Somehow the Lakers flipped that into the team’s fourth-most important player of last season’s playoffs.

Granted, Nunn was included in the deal mostly as a salary match for Hachimura but it still makes the trade look exceptional in hindsight. After all, the Wizards only got two second-round picks and a second-round pick swap on top of Nunn.

LA then flipped Thomas Bryant to the Denver Nuggets for three-second round picks. If you really think about it, the Lakers got Hachimura for free; they traded picks that they got right back from another team alongside a player who likely won’t even be an NBA player anymore just six months later.