[McMenamin] Here is belief shared by leaders in the Lakers' locker room, sources said, that the team is only a couple of players away from turning this group into a legitimate contender.

Would the Lakers' season be saved by a trade?

Maybe. There is belief shared by leaders in the Lakers' locker room, sources said, that the team is only a couple of players away from turning this group into a legitimate contender. But acquiring the right players could take multiple trades.

Which is why attaching both 2027 and 2029 draft picks to get a deal done with Indiana is such a gut check. Pelinka admitted as much on media day in September. "You have one shot to make a trade with multiple picks," he said. "So if you make that trade, and I'm not talking about one particular player on our team, but it has to be the right one."

Otherwise, maybe there is a way to seek one deal centered on Westbrook and one of the two picks, and another using something like Patrick Beverley's salary ($13 million) and Kendrick Nunn's ($5.3 million) -- the only other contracts on the Lakers' books hefty enough to pair together to salary match for a proven player -- plus the other pick to add another player of consequence.

But the clock is ticking. Even with improved play as of late, at 7-11 L.A. is still three games out of the final play-in spot in the Western Conference.

And the schedule is unforgiving leading up to the mid-January timeline when L.A. anticipates offers could materialize. Including Monday's game against the Pacers, 15 of the Lakers' next 23 games between now and Jan. 9 are on the road. If at that point, nearly 40 games into the season, the Lakers are still below .500 -- a reasonable concern considering L.A. is 2-6 on the road so far -- would leveraging the future to pour into this group be worth it?

Or should the Lakers play this season out with the roster as currently constructed, use salary-cap space to sign free agents in the summer and explore trades involving picks after draft night when they will have the player they selected with their 2023 first-round pick available to deal?

For now in Lakerland, there remain far more questions than answers.

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