Is a Lakers trade near after Jazz moves, press conference juggling?
By RC Nazemi
Well, Los Angeles Lakers fans were supposed to get a press conference from Lakers GM Rob Pelinka and the newly acquired head coach Darvin Ham on Wednesday.
That was until yesterday when it was reported by Marc Stein that the tandem would be moving the event to Monday, the same day the organization’s players would be interviewed.
This begs the question, was this decision really just a rescheduling? It seemed as though it could be until the Lakers’ Twitter sleuths did their thing and found two very intriguing pieces of information.
Five minutes before the news was released about the move of the conference, it was revealed by NBA Insider Shams Charania that the Utah Jazz were making their first of two questionable moves.
Free agent center Cody Zeller has agreed to a deal with the Utah Jazz, sources tell me and @Tjonesonthenba.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) September 20, 2022
Utah also signed Micah Potter to a two-way contract for the 2022-23 season, which was reported shortly after the Zeller news.
These questionable moves by the Jazz, mixed with the press conference rescheduling, could signal a Lakers trade is near.
Cody Zeller as an addition to the team makes sense. I mean he’s an 8-yr veteran in the league who’s fully capable of providing 15-20 quality minutes per game for teams. Micah Potter, a player entering his second year with only three games under his belt, however, doesn’t make as much sense. The situation the Jazz find themselves in currently makes these moves even more senseless.
After today’s news, that now means that Utah has brought in two players to their roster bringing their total number of players to a whopping eighteen, including two more two-way players.
While yes teams in the offseason are allowed 20 players on the roster, as most fans know, when the regular season starts that number is cut down fairly drastically to 15. This is what brings us to the conjecture.
With the season so quickly approaching it begs the question, why the alarming surplus of players, and why did this seemingly trigger the Lakers to hold off the team’s state of the union until Monday? Pelinka is doing work.
With Russell Westbrook’s main appeal being his expiring and rather massive contract, it would only make sense that a return of 2-3 players in a multi-team trade would suffice.
A name that has been thrown around is Bojan Bogdanovic who with his large frame and 39% career three-point percentage, would make an exceptional wing addition to the team.
Another would be one of the Laker’s prodigal sons Jordan Clarkson, who can get hot in a hurry on the offensive end, however, the backcourt is fairly full so this seems less likely.
Whether or not the trades go down for these specific players, when Pelinka and Ham do eventually take the stage Monday I have a feeling it may be cause for celebration.