Lakers Rumors: Trade Buzz Surrounding Jeremy Lin, Nick Young and More

The Los Angeles Lakers have been all over the place since free agency kicked off.

From the LaMarcus Aldridge sweepstakes to flirting with Jimmy Butler to all kinds of trade rumors, seriously—they’ve been everywhere.

Well, LMA is now a San Antonio Spur and Butler is locked up with the Chicago Bulls, so the only logical thing to do here is examine what’s floating around on L.A.’s trade grapevine.

Sending Off the Swag

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Lakers fans, it is with teary eyes and a heavy heart that you are presented with this rumbling from the kings of the offseason, Yahoo Sports’ Marc J. Spears and Adrian Wojnarowski:

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As the Lakers work to clear cap space to sign free agents and absorb Hibbert's contract, Nick Young is a strong candidate to be unloaded, sources told Yahoo Sports. The Lakers are finalizing details to acquire Hibbert, and there remains a possibility Los Angeles could send a player to the Pacers in the agreement, sources said. The Lakers and Pacers had agreed on a future second-round pick as compensation for Hibbert and his $15.5 million 2015-16 salary getting absorbed into Los Angeles' salary-cap space.

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No!

Nick Young was made for Los Angeles. The shot-jacking shooting guard might not necessarily be custom-built for this Lakers roster, but the man has Hollywood in his blood.

Sure, he does questionable things sometimes. OK, often.

But this dude is more than a comedy act—he can play, too. Young led L.A. players not named Kobe Bryant with 13.4 points per game in 2014-15 while shooting 36.9 percent from three-point land.

If the team does deal him, he’ll be missed both on and off the court.

J-Lin to Big D

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Jeremy Lin has really struggled to capture the superstar persona we saw during his brief stint with the New York Knicks three years ago.

After two seasons with the Houston Rockets, Lin put up just 11.2 points per game for L.A. in 2014-15, the lowest scoring average since his rookie year with the Golden State Warriors, where he was literally there to warm the bench.

With Lin slowly becoming a little fish in a huge pool of free agents, the point guard is trying to revitalize himself with the Dallas Mavericks, which he sees as his “best opportunity to reignite his career,” according to Wojnarowski's sources.

Here’s more from Wojnarowski:

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Lin could join a free agent class that already includes center DeAndre Jordan and guard Wes Matthews. The Mavericks have exhausted most of their salary-cap space to sign those players and have only an exception of $2.8 million available if the team doesn't use that to sign free agent J.J. Barea.

Because the Mavericks are low on the necessary salary-cap space and exceptions to sign Lin to a market-level contract, the sign-and-trade could be needed to secure Lin to a deal.

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Eric Picnus of Basketball Insiders tried to tackle this potential move, which can get quite tangled:

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The other approach to Lakers if they're moving Lin via S&T is not to get a player or asset back but to open more cap space (Young out, etc)

— Eric Pincus (@EricPincus) July 5, 2015"

There seems to be a lot of moving parts here, especially when you factor in the alleged deal between the Lakers and the Indiana Pacers to send Roy Hibbert to L.A., per Wojnarowski.

Lin winding up in Dallas—and tossing lobs to DeAndre Jordan, the NBA’s version of Godzilla—is certainly possible, but a lot needs to be hashed out first.

Lakers Need Help…STAT?

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Amar’e Stoudemire appears to have this crazy idea that he’s some sort of elite free agent. He’s not.

But even at 32 years old with a ton of miles on him, STAT can still bring some value to a contending team. The Knicks allowed the power forward to hop aboard the Mavericks train late last season, and he contributed 10.8 points and 3.7 rebounds while shooting 58.1 percent from the field.

Stoudemire is now a free agent, and B/R’s Jared Zwerling reported that there is “mutual interest” between the veteran and the Lakers, among other teams:

ESPN’s Chris Broussard also reported over the weekend that L.A. would chase Stoudemire if the team whiffed on most of the big names:

Depending on how much cash the Lakers can afford to shell out—which will be decided in part by the moves discussed above—adding Amar’e would be a step in the right direction.

A skilled veteran with a strong voice would do only good things for a team trying to find its identity as it chases contention.