The Utah Jazz made easy work out of the new-look Los Angeles Lakers last night. It was an all-around victory, but the Jazz's most obvious advantage was that their frontcourt got pretty much anything they wanted.
It's not hard to figure out why. After losing Anthony Davis, the Lakers' frontcourt is as unimpressive as it gets. It already had enough issues with Davis, and with him gone, teams will go right at them again and again. If the Jazz, one of the worst teams in the NBA, can exploit that hole, so will the Lakers' toughest competition.
The Lakers did indeed try to get ahead of this by acquiring Mark Williams, but for now, it appears that trade won't come to fruition after all. For now, their frontcourt is stuck the way it is, which is a shame because the Jazz could have given them the frontcourt addition they needed: Walker Kessler!
(Just kidding, that definitely wasn't happening)
The Jazz weren't trading Kessler to LA after the Luka Doncic deal, but that doesn't mean they couldn't have made one with the Lakers. The big man in mind here would have been John Collins.
Collins is imperfect, but he's much better than who the Lakers currently have
Collins was most definitely available at the trade deadline. He played well enough that the Jazz almost traded him to Sacramento. It likely wouldn't have taken much to pry him away from them.
A trade wouldn't have been hard from the Lakers' standpoint. Rui Hachimura and Gabe Vincent would have gotten a deal done. Those are valued rotation pieces on the Lakers, but that lack of a quality center is a big void that Collins would fill.
It's not like Collins would have suddenly changed everything about the Lakers, but he would have given them some form of formidability when he's on the floor. Collins leaves something to be desired on defense, but he tries. Offensively, he fits perfectly next to Luka and LeBron James.
A floor-spacer, a lob threat, and a solid rebounder would have at least covered some ground for the Lakers. Would it have done much to stop the likes of Davis or Nikola Jokic in a playoff series? No, but there are very few players who can do that (in Jokic's case, nobody can).
The Lakers don't deserve too much flak because they earnestly tried to address their frontcourt issues when they got Williams. However, they should have thought about his reputation for being untrustworthy health-wise. Collins may have been expensive, but comparing to who they have now in their frontcourt now is downright laughable.
The Jazz may have tried to get Collins off their payroll, but they also tried to do right by him by sending him to a team that needs him. The Lakers would have fit that, and they may have to pay the price for not getting him when they had the chance.