Los Angeles Lakers Rumors: The Lakers and Brooklyn Nets will reportedly agree to a trade on Thursday, as D’Angelo Russell will head east with Timofey Mozgov. Brook Lopez and the 27th overall pick will come west.
Los Angeles Lakers Rumors have been running rampant in recent days. A lot of trade chatter has been surrounding Paul George, as the Lakers have reportedly been engaging in trade negotiations. While the George talk has dominated headlines, it sounds like the Lakers were working phones on other deals.
Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical dropped his first Woj bomb leading into the 2017 NBA Draft. According to Wojnarowski, the Lakers and Brooklyn Nets are going to complete a trade on Thursday during the draft.
The Lakers will reportedly be sending point guard D’Angelo Russell and center Timofey Mozgov to the Nets in exchange for Brook Lopez and the 27th pick in the draft.
Lakers are trading Tim Mozgov and D'Angelo Russell to Nets for Brook Lopez and 27th pick Thursday, sources say.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 20, 2017
This is the first of what could possibly be many NBA Draft season trades. For both teams involved, this trade makes sense.
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The Nets, despite their lackluster records in recent seasons, are lacking top-end talent. Russell gives them a potential building block in the backcourt and is a solid addition for the expiring contract of Lopez. The 27th pick, along with Lopez, isn’t too steep of a price for a player that was selected in the top-three just two years ago.
Russell could pair with Jeremy Lin in the backcourt. He showed that he is capable of playing off the ball or as the lead guard. The Nets are getting a solid player to help push their rebuild forward.
For the Lakers, this trade makes a lot of sense. Lopez is an established player that should make the team better right away. But, where this trade really helps the Lakers, is in the future.
The Lakers have cleared a ton of cap space by ridding themselves of Mozgov’s contract; $54 million approximately according to Wojnarowski.
Lakers shed $54M left on Mozgov deal, Nets get gifted young guard in Russell. Nets needed to flip Lopez expiring contract. https://t.co/KxfdEuAUO0
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 20, 2017
That cap relief could come in handy. If the LeBron James rumors in recent weeks are true, the Lakers need to have some cap space available to sign him next offseason. Not only do the Lakers open up more cap space, this paves the way for a Paul George trade.
The Lakers gained another asset, the 27th pick, that they could send to the Indiana Pacers. The Lakers have no reason to trade away someone such as Julius Randle or Brandon Ingram. They could package both the 27th and 28th picks to Indiana.
With George stating he wants to play for Los Angeles, the Lakers have all the leverage here and should keep as much of their young talent around as possible.
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This is a solid trade for both the Lakers and the Nets. They both accomplished some goals they had coming into the offseason before the draft has even begun.