The Los Angeles Lakers are packaging together a trade package and shopping it around the league, but so far, there haven’t been any takers.
The Lakers are looking for anything to shake up what’s become a mediocre season.
Frank Vogel is expected to leave sooner rather than later, but replacing Vogel alone won’t fix the problem. The real problem, as The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor explains, is that “Rob Pelinka built a roster with holes that were caused by depleting the depth chart to get Russell Westbrook.”
Because of this, the Lakers are now tasked with rebuilding their roster, but they have little at the moment to entice other teams in a deadline trade. Proof that the Lakers don’t have the right goods to bring to the trade table? They’ve been proposing a future first rounder and two players, and no one is interested.
“They’re calling teams offering a future first, Kendrick Nunn, and Talen Horton-Tucker, who has underwhelmed this season, and no one is biting yet,” O’Connor said.
According to NBA insider Marc Stein, the Lakers already offered this package to Detroit for Jerami Grant, but no one was interested.
Lakers are proposing their best trade, but no NBA team is interested
While no team is interested in this particular configuration, there is one that the Houston Rockets are interested in. Stein reported that the Rockets are interested in a 2027 first-round pick and Russell Westbrook for John Wall.
While a Wall-for-Westbrook trade would be “objectively hilarious” since the two have already been traded for one another, if an aging Wall could offer something to the Lakers, they would be the first to know. Wall is represented by Klutch Sports, the same agency that represents LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
Trade or no trade, selling the farm for Russell Westbrook looks increasingly worse in the rearview mirror. To counteract their mistake, it seems like the Lakers will have to compromise even more in order to make right making the wrong trade in 2021.