Lakers can’t match Knicks’ outrageous asking price for Cam Reddish

The Los Angeles Lakers are not in a great position right now as the season could potentially start to slip away with Anthony Davis out for at least the next month. If Los Angeles does not do something soon, the season could slip between the cracks and snowball last like year.

Thus, a trade could happen in the near future to not only help the team stay afloat while AD is hurt but to improve the title chances once he returns. With the latest Zach LaVine rumors, there is now some hope that LA could actually get a third star in town via trade this season.

Fans should not outright expect a massive trade like that and should expect to see the team make lesser trades. One name that has been connected to LA several times over the last year-plus that is back on the trade market is Cam Reddish, who is no longer in the New York Knicks rotation.

Reddish seems like the perfect kind of trade target that is young and easily obtainable because of his value. However, it appears that the New York Knicks have a heftier price tag for Reddish than expected. According to Dan Woike of the Los Angeles Times, the Knicks are looking to get a first-round pick for Reddish. Woike writes that “the asking price is expected to eventually dip” because of a lack of interest but that is still an insane starting point.

The Lakers absolutely cannot trade a first-round pick for Cam Reddish.

As promising as Reddish is as a young wing that could potentially fill the Lakers’ needs this season and beyond, he absolutely is not worth a first-round pick. There is not a team in the league that would send a first-round pick for Reddish with how he has performed for the Knicks this season.

Plus, the Lakers need to save these picks for a potential bigger move. It would be terrible asset management if Rob Pelinka was unable to move two first-round picks to move Westbrook but was willing to trade even a protected first for Reddish.

At most, the Lakers should be sending the Knicks a second-round pick for Reddish. That is what his value is as an expiring player that is not even in New York’s rotation. It is hard for the Knicks to ask for much more than that when they don’t have much leverage.

There is also another route the team could go down with Evan Fournier. New York likely wants Fournier’s contract off the books and if the Lakers send expiring deals in Kendrick Nunn and Patrick Beverley to accomplish that then they can probably ask for Reddish to be attached as an asset.

But then the Lakers would be committing to multiple years of Fournier, who has not played good basketball the last year and a half. That is an expensive project to take on.

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At this point, the hope has to be that there is not a Reddish trade market because if so, the Lakers are going to get beaten out with the assets they can send since a first-round pick is completely off the table.