Do the Lakers and Warriors owe it to LeBron James and Stephen Curry to trade away a distant first-round pick to give them a better shot at winning a fifth championship?

The NBA trade deadline is, for most teams, an exercise in resource-management. Take the Phoenix Suns. They are so desperate for the flexibility to make moves that they just traded one great first-round pick for three bad ones.

The Los Angeles Lakers are fifth in the Western Conference, but if they go after a reported trade target, they could have more than enough size to tackle the Denver Nuggets.