When Lakers Patrick Beverly made the trade, there was hope that the deal was the first Dominoes to resume their off-season maneuvers. Instead, the Lakers still have the same roster a week later, and the same concerns as they try to rebuild their team to be competitive.
Here are some of the rumored deals the Lakers have been linked to before the start of training camp, assuming the price isn’t too high.
Donovan Mitchell Trade Facilitation
Talks between New York and Utah over the Donovan Mitchell trade reached a sticking point earlier this week when… Knicks agree to extend rookie with RJ Barrettmaking his contract included in a potential deal more difficult.
As the two teams continue to work towards moving Mitchell to his hometown, they will likely need a third team to help absorb some of the salary, and that’s where the Lakers can come in, As Mark Berman reported from the New York Post,.
Jazz head Danny Inge loves Barrett, but prioritizes earning four unprotected first-round picks for Mitchell, a three-time All-Star.
That may not be possible unless a third team such as the Lakers is added to revive the talks. According to a source, the Lakers are open to discussions and remain interested in striker Cam Reddish.
The Lakers had a long foreplay with Cam Reddish, the fourth-year winger, dating back to when they met him in the 2019 draft. Reddish traded from Atlanta to New York last season, but the Lakers tried to get into a bidding war, He is said to be offering two selections in the second round for Reddishbefore the Knicks pounce for the first time.
L.A.’s ongoing fascination with a player who has made 32.5 percent of his three-pointers during his NBA career — despite being described as a post-college shooter — is a little worrisome, especially when combined with the fact that Reddish is Klutch’s client. At this point, Reddish’s main selling points are that he’s 6’8 and will only be 23 early in the season; The Lakers have had success with second-draft nominees in the past (owner Monk and Stanley Johnson immediately came to find him), so there may be value thus far for the player with his physical tools.
Pacers It is said that he wanted tht before the Utah trade
When the Lakers shopped for Talen Horton-Tucker and Kendrick Nunn and a 2027 first-round pick on last season’s trading deadline, THT was widely seen as a negative salary in a hypothetical deal. Horton Tucker endured the worst years of his career, or at least disappointing, in 2021-22, with shooting rates soaring from all over the land; He didn’t get the chance to show off his team play industry with so many other ball players in front of him in flick order.
It was a little miracle when Turn Lakers THT into a positive Beverley player in the jazz tradeBut it’s clear that Utah wasn’t the only team that had a positive opinion of Horton Tucker. On the HoopsHype podcast, Michael Scotto shared that Indiana wanted to get THT As part of a larger Russell Westbrook deal:
It looks like the best deal the Lakers can make if they want to move Russell Westbrook and try to win this season is with Indiana for Miles Turner and Buddy Heald. One interesting note is before the Tallinn Lakers replaced Horton Tucker with Utah in the Patrick Beverly trade, the Pacers were trying to get Horton Tucker, I’m told. Essentially, Indiana had been hoping for Westbrook’s expired contract, the Lakers’ first-round picks in 2027 and 2029, along with Horton Tucker for Turner, Hield and wanted to get Los Angeles to take Daniel Theis, who is looking forward to some years on his contract. Theis is more suitable for a team of playoff caliber as seen with Celtics previously. The Lakers were essentially not trying to engage THT for Theis in discussing this extended trade package after he already had reservations about moving first-round picks to get rid of Westbrook’s contract. Speaking with people across the league, anyone who competes with Westbrook wants both first-round picks.
According to those reports, the Indiana had been trying to get rid of negative assets on the Lakers in the form of Daniel Theis, who had already been on his third team for the past 12 months, and the Lakers didn’t think it was worth getting into a bad contract if it also meant parting with their best young player. . Given that the Lakers were able to turn THT into a viable starting guard, it seems that the calculus was correct.
However, it does not bode well for Westbrook’s future trades that his transfer price will not only include first-round picks but an additional asset. That’s a steep price to pay for a team trying to build a rival, and potentially an impossible handicap for the Lakers to contend with now that they’ve already split from Horton Tucker. If later teams inquire about Austin Reeves or Max Christie, it’s fair to wonder if those would be deal breakers in L.A.
A second trade with Jazz? Not for the first two
With Kyrie Irving out of the market, Turner and Hield appear to be the best consolation prize in the Westbrook trade. However, given Indiana’s previous commercial demands and the fact that THT is no longer available, it makes sense that another team could override the Pacers as a trading partner.
So it is not surprising that Jovan Poha the athlete He thinks jazz is a more likely landing spot for WestbrookAs he said on the HoopsHype podcast mentioned above:
In regards to Westbrook Mall, I’ve heard Indiana and Utah are the two most likely destinations. I think Utah, from what I’m told, is more likely than Indiana. There are many permutations with Indiana where Miles Turner and Buddy Heald can be together or one of them.
I’ve heard that the Lakers are still hesitant to include a second first-round pick. Maybe that’s something that changes as training camp approaches. I know it would have changed if Kyrie Irving had been available. This was the only scenario in which the two options would have been on the table. Regardless, they just look at it like, can we do a first-round pick and a few seconds or a single pick and a protected pick or a choice swap?
I think the asking price was two choices in the first round. It’s very clear what the league wants against Ross. I think the Lakers can play hard, but I feel, at some point, that you have to decide if they want to bring him into training camp with all the potential distractions and fitting issues that we saw last season? Or step in with a blank canvas and bring in Turner and Hield or Bogdanovic and something else with new feelings, energy, and better-suited men.
I think they’re going to ramp it up (the trade talks) before bootcamp and get more aggressive than I’ve been told, but whether that aggression includes giving up two first-round picks, I’m still as if they’re going to fight to try and hold that second-round pick.
If the Lakers’ goal is to move Westbrook less than two innings from the first round, then Utah doesn’t seem to be the place to make it happen, considering who runs their basketball operations. Danny Ainge created an impossible market by trading Rudy Gobert, bringing in four future rounds, a 2022 first round pick, swap and multiple existing contributors. It was reported that he “coveted” the Lakers’ choice in the futureAnd after making one reasonable deal with Los Angeles earlier this season, that probably isn’t a pattern.
The problem is that the Lakers don’t have any leverage. If the alternative is to return to an objectively terrible 2021-22 core, they will eventually have to pay for the reset and bring in the right complements of LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Utah has a few of those in Bojan Bogdanovic and possibly Jordan Clarkson and Jared Vanderbilt. Whether this is more attractive than Turner and Hield is an open question, but in the end, the Lakers will have to choose a path out of this mess.
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