Clippers gearing up to steal yet another much-valued Lakers target

The Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers have been very interesting the last three or so years. While the Clippers have absolutely dominated the head-to-head matchup in this new era of the LA rivalry, the Lakers are the team that has a championship to show for it.

Many assumed that the NBA was destined for a Lakers-Clippers Western Conference Finals for several years and that never happened once. Instead, the Lakers traded their way out of relevancy and the Clippers went all-in on injury-prone stars who have remained injury prone.

Both Kawhi Leonard and Paul George were tied to the Lakers at some point before they came to the Clippers, with Kawhi specifically choosing to play with George instead of joining up with LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

Add in the fact that the Clippers straight-up stole Ivica Zubac from the Lakers and there is some history there with players getting stolen from LA. Heck, if you look at the Clippers’ roster it looks like the kind of roster that should be put around LeBron James.

The Clippers may add to this history of stealing players that the Lakers covet, as they too are interested in Indiana Pacers big man, Myles Turner (h/t Eric Pincus, Bleacher Report).

The Clippers absolutely could steal Myles Turner from the Lakers if they want.

The sad reality of the situation is that the Clippers have more to realistically offer to the Indiana Pacers for Myles Turner. They have role players that are actually valuable with contracts to match and would not just be dumping off players they don’t want (like the Lake Show would be) in a Turner trade.

To be fair, the Lakers’ 2027 unprotected first-round pick is the most valuable pick that can be traded for Turner but Los Angeles probably should not even do that. That is a very valuable pick to trade for someone who undoubtedly fits well on this roster, but does not push the team over the edge in any way.

The Lakers would really regret trading that first-round pick for Turner only for him to leave in the offseason after the Lakers finish as the 11th seed. I can promise you that.

Perhaps that is the Clippers’ plan in all of this. If there is another team in the market then the price is going to be driven up. Rob Pelinka might panic seeing that the Clippers are also in the market and make a trade that he otherwise wouldn’t have. It wouldn’t be the first time that Jerry West outsmarted Pelinka.

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Regardless, this is a situation where Pelinka simply has to stick to his guns and if the Clippers trade for Turner… oh well. It would suck to see as a fan but it is even worse to sell more of the future just so the Clippers can’t have him.