The Los Angeles Lakers find ways to make headlines, even during an NBA Finals in which they aren’t playing. Right now, it’s their coaching search. But very soon, it’ll be about their offseason personnel moves.
With LeBron James barreling toward age 40 and one of the weaker drafts in recent years on the horizon, the Lakers will need to turn to free agency and/or the trade market to improve the roster.
Another star around James and Anthony Davis is an ideal outcome, but that player has to be a perfect fit if he’s going to vault L.A. into a position of legitimate competitiveness with the top teams in a loaded Western Conference.
Bill Simmons of The Ringer suggested a trade pitch that would allow the Lakers to acquire Dejounte Murray from the Atlanta Hawks, a team most analysts believe is likely to trade either Murray or Trae Young this summer.
“Doesn’t it make more sense for them to trade for Murray? Isn’t the price less? It’s a cheaper contract, ” Simmons said on the Monday, June 10 edition his self-titled podcast. “They could put the [Gabe Vincent and Jarred Vanderbilt] contracts together. Their pick this year, they could draft a guy and then send him after.
Their [2029] first-rounder, and they can do a swap in [2028] for Murray and be done with it — and keep the [2031 first-round pick] but not give up quite as much and get a guy on a cheaper deal.”
GettyAtlanta Hawks guards Dejounte Murray (left) and Trae Young (right). Murray was an All-Star during his final year with the San Antonio Spurs in 2021-22 before they traded him to Atlanta, where he has averaged north of 20 points per game in each of the past two seasons. He will play next year at the age of 28.
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