The Trade Primer series continues as the OKC Thunder travel to the City of Angels to check out Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers.
The moment the Los Angeles Lakers signed LeBron James signaled a shift from rebuilding to championship chasing. L.A has been irrelevant since the departure of Kobe Bryant and are now the center of the NBA universe.
LBJ’s recent groin injury caused him to miss 11 games and the Lakers fell from third to 10th.
Trying to trade
After trying to low ball the Pelicans with its first offer for Anthony Davis, the Lakers got more serious offering multiple players and first-round picks.
Landed in Indy; update on Lakers-Pelicans talks. Magic Johnson, Dell Demps talked twice today, per source. Lakers willing to give Pelicans cap relief for Anthony Davis by taking Solomon Hill for Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma, Ingram, Rondo, Lance Stephenson, Beasley, 2 1st round picks.
— Brad Turner (@BA_Turner) February 4, 2019
Despite this, the Pelicans are looking for more as they have allegedly told Magic Johnson they want to be “overwhelmed” in the potential deal. This caused the Lakers to back-off completely.
The Lakers are still glad to engage with the Pelicans on an Anthony Davis trade, but no longer want to bid against themselves, league sources tell ESPN. Lakers are waiting for Pelicans to make a counter-proposal.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 5, 2019
Whether or not a deal gets done with the Lakers remains to be seen but the feeling within both organisations an AD trade won’t happen until the Summer of 2019.
Lakers still make a move
The Lakers made its first move before the deadline trading young wing Svi Mykhailiuk and a second round pick for Detroit Pistons wing Reggie Bullock.
Sources: The Lakers are trading guard Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk and a draft pick to Detroit for guard Reggie Bullock. Deal is expected to be completed Wednesday.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 6, 2019
This is an underrated move that improves the Lakers exponentially but the squad still needs to make an additional trade or two to be considered contenders. With Los Angeles putting virtually everyone on the block to upgrade its roster, OKC could look to LA to upgrade the bench.
Lets take a look.