Lakers Trade Rumors: Latest Buzz on Potential Deadline Targets
As Thursday’s trade deadline draws closer, the Los Angeles Lakers continue to try to improve their aging roster in their quest to return to the NBA Finals.
Players like Pau Gasol and a resurgent Andrew Bynum have popped up in various rumored deals, but GM Mitch Kupchak has yet to pull the trigger.
In recent days, Kupchak has spoken to the Houston Rockets about sending them Gasol for a package centered around forward Luis Scola and versatile point guard Kyle Lowry, as Los Angeles badly needs an upgrade at that spot. However, Houston GM Daryl Morey would not make Lowry available.
Now that the former Villanova Wildcat is expected to miss two to four weeks while recovering from a bacterial infection, this deal is pretty much as dead as it can get, unless the Rockets agree to trade away leading scorer Kevin Martin.
That isn’t to say that the Lakers’ hopes of making a trade are dead in the water. According to Ken Berger of CBSsports.com, “rival executives” predict that the Portland Trail Blazers would like to send point man Raymond Felton to Los Angeles for bench shooter Steve Blake, though the Lakers would most likely need to send someone else along, too.
Kupchak told ESPN’s Chris Broussard that he didn’t expect to trade Gasol, especially with the new circumstances in Houston, but there are still teams out there that have interest in the Spanish seven-footer. That said, if a deal for Gasol is indeed made, the Lakers would probably have to be blown away.
Finally, we come to one of the bigger names on the block. As Mike Bresnahan of the LA Times reported earlier, Kupchak spoke to Boston Celtics GM Danny Ainge about the possibility of acquiring Rajon Rondo, whose versatility could catapult the Lakers to the upper tier of the Western Conference.
However, there is an update to this rumor, and the Lakers aren’t going to like it.
Just yesterday, Ainge went public and announced that Rondo would not be traded and thus remain in Boston despite being on the block earlier this month.
Thus, there’s no telling just what the Lakers will do over the next couple of days. Their top target, Lowry, is now completely off the table, and all other targets are either unavailable or potentially too costly.
Still, there’s always the chance that Kupchak will once again wave his magic wand and bring in a major difference-maker, so we’ll just have to wait and see.
