Lakers fans think team needs another big and shooter, should be a buyer at NBA trade deadline

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NBA. Each week, we send out questions to the most plugged in Los Angeles Lakers fans. Sign up here to join Reacts.

With the NBA trade deadline less than two full days away, and the Lakers in the middle of a brutal stretch without LeBron James and Anthony Davis, there have been plenty of rumors about what the team might do. But what will they do? None of us will know that for sure until the Woj Bombs start dropping in the lead-up to Thursday’s deadline at 12:00 p.m. PT, but that doesn’t mean we can’t take our best guess.

And while there isn’t a whole lot we can almost unanimously agree on in this world anymore, according to the most recent SB Nation Reacts survey, the majority of Lakers fans feel the same way about what this team should be doing before the trade deadline hits: Getting some extra help.

Given that this team is a contender that should be — and reportedly, is — planning to bolster itself for a playoff run with a healthy LeBron James and Anthony Davis, this result isn’t exactly surprising.

But what type of player should they be targeting? The Lakers have mostly been linked to centers in the trade and buyout market so far, and fans of the team agree that the position is the Lakers’, ahem, biggest area of need, with 47% of responders saying that the Lakers needed a big.

The next closest vote getter was a shooter, which got 21% of the votes. George Hill, anyone? “Wing” and “defensive specialist” were tied with 16% of the vote each, while literally zero Lakers fans responding said that the team needed another ballhandler.

So hey, if we’re looking for positives, at least — unlike last season — having someone else to create off the dribble doesn’t appear to be an area of desperate need, at least when LeBron gets back.

The other good news? The Lakers don’t necessarily have to pick just one of these options. It seems all but a certainty that they’ll be getting Andre Drummond as a buyout big at this point, which would allow them to uses Alfonzo McKinnie’s contract and a pick to go after a shooter, or they could even use other bigger contracts to chase a larger upgrade.

We’ll see what they try to do before — and in the aftermath of — Thursday’s deadline, but as dispiriting as the last few games have been to watch without James and Davis, those guys are coming back at some point. The Lakers still have some big opportunities to reinforce the foundations before their stars return, and get ready to defend their title.

What do you think the Lakers should do? Let us know in the comments below, and to vote in the Reacts surveys and have your voice heard each week, sign up here. And for more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts. You can follow Harrison on Twitter at @hmfaigen.