Lakers: NBA Insider Provides Update On LA Front Office Attitude Towards Trades

Will the front office change its cautious approach to offloading draft picks?

In his latest Substack piece (subscriber-exclusive link), NBA insider Marc Stein (formerly of The Dallas Morning News, ESPN and The New York Times) takes a look at the state of the league one month ahead of its February 9th trade deadline.

Talk invariably turns to your Los Angeles Lakers. Stein suggests that the Lakers front office, led by team vice president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka, remains resistant to a deal that would see it sacrifice both its tradable future first-round draft picks, in 2027 and 2029, in exchange for role player depth. 

As we know (and as Stein reviews), LA balked on a deal that would send Indiana Pacers sharpshooting vets Myles Turner and Buddy Hield to the Lakers for Russell Westbrook's $47.1 million expiring contract and the draft selections during the 2022 offseason. Stein writes that the team also decided against trading the combined salaries of Patrick Beverley and Kendrick Nunn, totaling $18.3 million, plus one totally unprotected pick, for sharpshooting veteran (sensing a trend?) Detroit Pistons power forward Bojan Bogdanovic.

Stein notes that some rival executives still believe the Lakers are holding onto their picks in the hopes that All-Star shooting guards Bradley Beal or Zach LaVine become available. As Stein writes, both vets come with their own injury-related caveats at this point. Is either player worth moving both those two picks? LaVine is an elite shooter and decent passer, while Beal is still a high-level scorer, albeit not at LaVine's level, but a slightly better ball handler.