Lakers News: LA Struggling To Find Home For Major Trade Chip

This isn't good for LA.

Your Los Angeles Lakers' trade discussions have almost always featured point guard D'Angelo Russell, who has been under fire for his inconsistency, poor defense, and lack of effort this season, culminating in him being benched prior to an injury that forced him to miss some time. 

While Russell has flashed in a number of packages including those for Chicago Bulls guard Zach LaVine and Atlanta Hawks guard Dejounte Murray, recent reports indicate that there may be far less interest around the league for D'Lo than we originally thought. 

Russell's lack of value around the league is a huge issue, as it acts as a massive obstacle to LA making any trades work, both from a value and contract perspective. 

His $20 million deal theoretically enables him to be tagged onto any package for a guy like Murray or LaVine to help make the money match, but if teams don't want him, LA has nobody else to send from the standpoint of financial feasibility. 

Outside of Russell, Austin Reaves is the name that has popped up in his replacement in some potential deals, but the value differential between the two is so massive that LA will likely turn down any moves involving Reaves, unless it involves them acquiring a top-tier player like Donovan Mitchell. 

If Russell truly carries limited value around the league, then it makes more sense to keep him, as he's much better than anyone you would sell low on him for. For example, the Nets may be interested in him for a player like Royce O'Neale, but the odds that a move like that moves the needle for the Lakers is low.