We’re getting deep into the 2024 NBA offseason, and the Los Angeles Lakers have yet to make a splash move. The level of quiet we’ve seen from L.A. wasn’t what fans expected when the offseason began or when star LeBron James left a little money on the table on his newest contact.

According to Jovan Buha and Shams Charania of The Athletic, James had previously discussed taking a “substantial pay cut” to add a true standout like Klay Thompson or DeMar DeRozan, but that never materialized, so James took close to the max. Still, it never felt like Rob Pelinka and the front office would be content to essentially run it back with the same roster.

Maybe they don’t. There’s still a long way to go before the regular season kicks off, and there remains a fair bit of trade buzz. Lauri Markkanen’s situation bears watching, and Jerami Grant of the Portland Trail Blazers remains “on the [Lakers’] radar,” according to Yahoo Sports’ Jake Fisher (h/t HoopsHype),

The problem is that Markkane is unrealistic—he’d prefer to stay with the Utah Jazz, according to CBS Sports’ Sam Quinn—and players like Grant won’t make L.A. a powerhouse in the Western Conference.

Keeping the same roster, hoping to see contributions from rookie Dalton Knecht and putting some faith in new head coach J.J. Redick may be L.A.’s best option—at least for now.

Los Angeles sits dangerously close to the second luxury tax apron, which makes trading for an elite talent on a hefty contract virtually impossible. Sending out point guard D’Angelo Russell and his $18.7 million salary is the only real option the Lakers have financially. However, they’re going to have a hard time to even find a taker for Russell, even in a deal for a player like Grant.

“I’ve heard Portland doesn’t want D-Lo because they have a million guards anyway. So, it just doesn’t really make sense for them,” Jovan Buha of The Athletic on his Buha’s Block podcast (h/t Zach Pressnell of FanSided).

The idea that teams don’t want Russell isn’t new.

“D’Angelo Russell and Jarred Vanderbilt, Gabe Vincent, Rui Hachimura, they have somewhere between neutral to negative trade value across the league,” Buha said on his podcast in July (h/t Bleacher Report’s Doric Sam).

The reality is that if the Lakers are going to make a run with their core tandem of James and Davis this season, Russell is very likely to be part of the equation.

This means that Redick has another challenge on his hands as he tries to script a successful game plan for the Lakers in 2024.

Buha, Sam Amick and Shams Charania of The Athletic reported back in June that Redick wants to build a system that is “molded around this roster.”

They mention using James in more of an off-ball role and featuring Davis more late in games. Redick might as well add developing Russell into a more consistent player to his to-do list, because it will be necessary for L.A. to be a serious threat.

Now, Russell isn’t an outright bad player. He averaged 18.0 points and 6.3 assists last season, and he can help take James away from those ball-handling responsibilities. However, he offers next to nothing on defense, he can be streaky as a range shooter, and he’s practically disappeared in two consecutive postseasons.

Perhaps Redick, who was a fine shooter himself during his playing days, can conjure a little more dependability out of Russell’s offensive game while finding ways to hide him defensively. Darvin Ham never made it happen, but Redick has no coaching experience and is expected to take a novel approach.

One way or another Redick and the Lakers have to figure out how to maximize Russell’s impact on the roster, whether they intend to keep him or not.

Ideally, Redick can get this roster, including Russell, to mesh as it did during L.A.’s run to the Western Conference Championship two years ago. The Lakers would likely still be underdogs against whoever they face, but getting deep into the postseason is the first obstacle. From there, opposing injuries or stellar games from James and Davis might just put the Lakers back in the Finals.

The best alternative, at this point, would be to wait for a more enticing trade option to emerge closer to the deadline. That’s how Pelinka acquired Russell and much of the 2022-23 supporting cast in the first place.

To pull off an in-season trade that actually makes the roster better, though, the Lakers will probably need Russell to carry a lot more trade value than he currently does.

Right now, the league-wide impression of Russell likely stems from his latest postseason dip—in which he shot just 38.4 percent from the field and 31.8 percent from beyond the arc. There’s plenty of time to change that impression between now and February 6, but Redick and the Lakers must make it a heavy priority.