As the Los Angeles Lakers continue to progress throughout the 2025 NBA offseason, one thing remains the same that they still need to address before the regular season rolls around, and that is improving their defense.
For the Lakers to do that at this point in the offseason, they should be looking to make a trade rather than looking at the remaining free agents to accomplish this need. For Los Angeles, the trade they should be looking to make is with the New York Knicks for Josh Hart.
New York Knicks Trade Josh Hart to the Los Angeles Lakers
For the New York Knicks, they are bound to continue to make changes this offseason to revamp their team to truly give themselves the best chance possible to win an NBA Finals Championship with Jalen Brunson still in his prime.
With hiring Mike Brown as the head coach, the players on the roster truly outside of Brunson aren’t safe, as Brown will want to construct the roster to how he wants it. For the right package in return, this could mean Josh Hart gets moved in a trade at some-point this offseason.
Josh Hart joined the Knicks in 2023, and just this past season went on to have an average of 13.6 points per game, which was his best scoring average in his career since the 2021-2022 season. He also added on 5.9 assists, and 9.6 rebounds per game.
Trading Hart would cause a hit to the Knicks’ defense, but they also still have the players on the roster that can cover what hart provided. If New York can acquire Austin Reaves in this deal to pair alongside Brunson, this trade is immediately worth it.
For Los Angeles, they would be bringing Josh Hart back to where he started, as he spent the first two years of his career on the Lakers. Since then, Hart has grown into a relentless rebounder when given playing time on the court. His presence on the defensive end would be exactly what Los Angeles is missing to pair alongside the offensive ability of LeBron James and Luka Doncic, creating an ideal scenario for the Lakers to go forward with trading for Josh Hart.
