With the NBA Draft just days away, Lakers rumors have been swirling as the team has already made a big trade.
Coming into the NBA Draft, we expected there to be a lot of Lakers rumors about who they would be drafting. However, there has been a ton of activity surrounding the team, and they had a big shakeup on Tuesday.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski, the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets agreed to a deal that sent D’Angelo Russell and Timofey Mozgov to the Brooklyn Nets for Brook Lopez and the 27th overall pick in the NBA 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 was a very surprising trade for the Lakers, as they seemed very hesitant to move any part of their young core. However, they were able to unload Mosgov’s poor contract and acquire another first round pick to possibly help facilitate a deal for Paul George.
Shortly after this trade was reportedly done, David Aldridge reported that the Lakers talked to the Sacramento Kings about trying to acquire the 5th and 10th overall picks in the first round for the 2nd overall pick.
Lakers, per sources, engaged Sacramento in talks that would have sent the 2nd pick to the Kings for Sac’s two 1st-rounders (5 and 10) (1/2)
— David Aldridge (@davidaldridgedc) June 21, 2017
Lakers would have then packaged one of the Kings’ picks w/27 & 28 along w/player in offer to Indy for Paul George. But Kings said no (2/2).
— David Aldridge (@davidaldridgedc) June 21, 2017
The plan for the Lakers was to add one of those picks from the Kings with their two late-round picks and a player for George.
Seeing the Lakers attempting to offer three first-round picks and a player for George might be going a bit overboard. George has already opening stated that he wanted to play with the Lakers. Something similar happened when the Knicks traded a ton of assets for Carmelo Anthony despite Anthony saying he wanted to come to New York already.
It took the Knicks a while to get supporting pieces to put around Anthony, and the trade ultimately didn’t result in much success for New York. While trading for George now makes sense, the Lakers also can’t give the Pacers too much for him.
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The Kings rejected the Lakers’ offer according to Aldridge, and that could end up being a blessing for the Lakers. It is clear that the Lakers are trying to get George before the draft. Now, we will have to wait and see what the price might be.