The Los Angeles Lakers have been trying hard this NBA offseason to upgrade their roster. They did what they could in free agency, armed with only the mid-level exception and veteran’s minimum deals.
Unlike the last offseason, when they targeted older veterans, they signed younger, defensive-minded players to fill out the roster this year.
Alas, their work is not nearly done. If the Lakers want to contend, Rob Pelinka needs to pull off a trade. Russell Westbrook has been in the middle of those trade rumors, but his market is virtually non-existent.
The only way that the Lakers are going to be able to unload him is by attaching draft capital along with him. Los Angeles has sent out proposals with one of the first-round picks, but teams are not interested in making a deal. To take on the former MVP, they want first-round picks in 2027 and 2029.
To this point, that is something that Pelinka has been unwilling to do. However, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN during a recent appearance on SportsCenter, even two first-round picks aren’t getting the deal done.
According to Wojnarowski, the Lakers did make two first-round picks available in negotiations with the Brooklyn Nets centered around Kyrie Irving. However, that isn’t an offer that Brooklyn was interested in.
If the Nets are not interested in taking two first-round picks for Irving, then they really aren’t motivated to trade him. Given how things have gone the last three seasons for Irving and how cold his market was earlier this offseason, not taking two first-round picks in exchange for him is shocking.
They could be waiting to make a trade centered around Durant first, but by the time that is done, the Lakers very well could have made a trade with someone else and that offer is no longer on the table. The Lakers need to focus their efforts elsewhere because a deal isn’t getting done with Brooklyn at this rate.
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