Blazers News: Lakers Looking to Trade for Two Portland Vets

Can the two sides reach a deal?

Dec 6, 2024; Portland, Oregon, USA; Portland Trail Blazers (from left to right) Anfernee Simons (1), Shaedon Sharpe (17), Duop Reath (26), Jerami Grant (9), and Deni Avdija (8) walk back to the court after a timeout during the first half against the Utah Jazz at Moda Center. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-Imagn Images / Soobum Im-Imagn Images

The Los Angeles Lakers have long been floated as potential trade partners for the 2024-25 Portland Trail Blazers, even ahead of the season.

Given the needs of a 14-12 club that's hoping to climb out of the dregs of the Western Conference play-in race (L.A. is currently the No. 10 seed), and the kinds of mid-sized contracts and future draft equity in the Lakers' coffers, a deal with Portland makes plenty of sense for both sides.

As The Athletic's Jovan Buha observes, Los Angeles is in pursuit of a defense-first center (presumably to serve as a backup behind five-time All-NBA big man Anthony Davis, but perhaps also to occasionally play alongside him), a 3-and-D swingman with size who can close out games alongside Davis and 20-time All-NBA forward LeBron James, and a large point-of-attack guard.

In terms of who among Portland's weirdly misfit roster of seasoned veterans and too-green young pieces holds the most appeal to L.A., Buha reports that his league sources indicate that former All-Defensive center Robert Williams III and 30-year-old power forward Jerami Grant are the big names that have been considered.

Williams could shore up the Lakers' interior defense when Davis sits, though he lacks the kind of well-rounded offensive game beyond the paint to operate alongside him in most lineups. Grant may not quite be in his Denver Nuggets-era defensive prime anymore, but he's still an above-average scorer and a solid man-to-man defender.

Buha notes that the Lakers are likely looking to make a deal closer to the NBA's February 6 trade deadline, as the team hopes to see long-injured big men Jarred Vanderbilt and Christian Wood return to the lineup so club president Rob Pelinka can assess their fits in first-year head coach J.J. Redick's lineups. Both have been recuperating from offseason surgeries all year, and have yet to appear in any of the Lakers' first 25 contests.

"Pelinka said at media day that he wanted to evaluate the team after the 30-game mark," Buha observes. "The Lakers play their 30th game of the season on Christmas Day at Golden State. The Lakers’ recent skid — they’ve lost eight of 12 games — hasn’t exactly been a ringing endorsement for investing in this group. The results in the next few weeks will determine how much pressure is on the front office to upgrade this roster."

Portland finds itself in a unique position ahead of the trade deadline. As one of the few teams that's definitively looking to accrue assets for its future, it may be able to extract maximal value for Williams, Grant, and the other veteran trade chips on its roster (Deandre Ayton, Anfernee Simons, even Matisse Thybulle).

"As has become the recent league-wide trend, there project to be more buyers than sellers on the trade market," Buha observes. "That can drive up the prices from sellers for quality starters and high-level role players, as it did last trade deadline."

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