Lakers officially completed their trade offer for the anticipated $175 million “dream target.”

Hard to believe that Jazz star Lauri Markkanen has been traded three times, including on draft night in 2017, in his career, and the Lakers never have been involved—not even as a team with an interest—in any of those transactions. But then, Markkanen was not much of a commodity early on.

 

When the Bulls first traded Markkanen, the return was relatively meager. They got two second-round draft picks plus Derrick Jones Jr. in a sign-and-trade with the Cavs and Blazers, but mostly got themselves free of the responsibility of having to pay the player, who’d been frequently injured and generally disappointing.

 

He was moved on from Cleveland to the Jazz after one year, but the return this time was better—he was packaged with Collin Sexton, Ochai Agbaji and three first-round pick, plus two pick swaps, for star guard Donovan Mitchell.