The NBA is officially in trade season, and the Los Angeles Lakers are expected to be the most active team among the contending teams. It’s obvious that the Lakers need to add more players at the trade deadline after a terrible December slump brought the team back to earth.
The Lakers can make almost any trade profitable by trading draft assets in addition to contracts. The question now becomes who Rob Pelinka will ultimately prioritize on the market and how he will navigate the trade waters.
Dejounte Murray of Atlanta is one unexpected name that has come up. Due to the fact that the Murray-Trae Young dynamic has not been successful in Atlanta, the Lakers are considering trading for Murray.
Straight-up trading for Murray is feasible, though it could be challenging. It may therefore require a three-team trade if the Lakers are genuinely interested. The people at Bleacher Report created the next three-team trade, which sent another all-star back to Atlanta and sent Murray to Los Angeles, keeping all of this in mind.
This trade has a lot of moving components. Pascal Siakam has affiliations with the Atlanta Hawks in addition to Murray with the Lakers. Even though it does so for those teams, it might not do so for all the teams involved in this trade. Shall we get right into the grades?
A+ for the Los Angeles Lakers
It would be a huge victory if the Los Angeles Lakers could trade D’Angelo Russell, one first-round pick, and contract junk for Dejounte Murray. Murray would play a winning brand of basketball and have a far greater influence in Los Angeles than Russell does.
In Atlanta, Murray’s defense has gotten worse, but that’s mostly due to the system and the fact that he plays in the same backcourt as Young Trae. After this season, he has a cheap contract that extends for four more seasons with this former All-Defensive Team player. It would be the Lakers’ unrestrained victory.