Believe it or not, the Los Angeles Lakers may already be planning to trade former second overall pick D’Angelo Russell away from the franchise.
While many believed the Los Angeles Lakers could be players at the deadline, the name D’Angelo Russell was not one being tossed around, or so we thought. Brian Geltzeiler of hoopscritic.com and Sirius XM NBA radio had the scoop:
In taking to people around the league on who has been made available in trade talks a very surprising name has come up: DeAngelo Russell
— Brian Geltzeiler (@BGeltzNBA) January 28, 2016
The news is surprising to say the least. The Los Angeles Lakers had their choice of the class, a class that continues to impress fans and analysts alike. When I followed up with Geltzeiler he said, “It will certainly take a lot to get Russell and it would have to be a package that gets the Lakers better right now so they’re more attractive to free agents. I would be shocked if the Lakers traded Russell for the purpose of kicking the can down the road.”
It’s certainly puzzling. The Lakers are a bottom team in the NBA, with a putrid record of 9-40. How are they possibly in a place to contend? The universal understanding to this point was, let Kobe Bryant ride out the last year of his deal, and then build up from there.
There have been reports of frustration on the part of Russell and head coach Byron Scott has been far from popular amongst social media users this season. But 48 games seems rather quick to pull the plug on young Russell, a player that was selected to lead this franchise into the new era.
If the Lakers were going to move on, if they were looking to get better now in order to be players in free agency this offseason, who could they be targeting? What are some packages that would make sense? We investigate.
Keep in mind all trades are built on the idea that the Lakers want to get better, so the trades will be for contending and not rebuilding packages.
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