Lakers' Potential Trade Partner's Stance on D'Angelo Russell Revealed: Report

Matt Levine | Jul 29, 2024

As the Los Angeles Lakers continue the offseason, it seems more and more likely that the team may enter next season with a similar roster as last year. Other than replacing head coach Darvin Ham with JJ Redick, the Lakers' summer has been fairly quiet.

However, there is still time for the team to make a move but they are limited in what they can do. Where things currently stand, Los Angeles has all 15 roster spots taken and they are just under the dreaded second apron line.

So for the team to make a deal, they would need to shed salary and players. One name that has been connected to the Lakers for most of the summer is forward Jerami Grant of the Portland Trail Blazers.

The big holdup in a trade for Grant has been the Lakers' hesitancy to move two first-round picks. In any deal, the Lakers would need to trade either Rui Hachimura or D'Angelo Russell.

The Trail Blazers' stance on Russell has been revealed, with Portland not being too interested in the veteran guard. The Athletic's Jovan Buha reported this during a recent episode of his podcast, Buha's Block.

“I’ve heard Portland doesn’t want D-Lo because they have a million guards anyway,” Buha said. “So, it just doesn’t really make sense for them.”

Los Angeles would rather trade Hachimura for Grant anyway so they avoid losing a key guard. Other than Russell, the Lakers don't have much depth in the backcourt so keeping Russell in a Grant deal would allow them to move him elsewhere potentially.

Buha also recently reported that the Lakers are still looking for deals to move Russell. While it has been an inactive summer so far, we could see more activity over the next few months before the start of the regular season.

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