Report: Lakers doing due diligence as links to potential additions continue

An NBA insider in Shams Charania linked the Los Angeles Lakers to a ton of players.

Atlanta Hawks star Dejounte Murray stands out as arguably the most talented player out of the four that Charania mentioned. He is the only one of the four to earn an All-Star nod in his NBA career and is averaging 21.1 points, 4.9 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game while shooting 47.1 percent from the floor and 38.2 percent from deep so far this season.

Of course, this isn’t the first time the Lakers have been linked to Murray this season. It was recently reported that the Hawks and Lakers have discussed possible frameworks about a deal, with D’Angelo Russell and Jalen Hood-Schifino named in talks.

Murray has scored 22 points or more in each of his last three games and dropped 24 points on 10-of-19 shooting from the field in the Hawks’ most recent game against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Jan. 20.

As for Terry Rozier, he has also scored the ball at a high level thus far during the 2023-24 regular season. He is averaging a career-high 23.6 points per game on 46.0 percent shooting from the field and 36.7 percent from 3-point range in his fifth season as a member of the Charlotte Hornets franchise.

For perspective on just how well Rozier is playing from a scoring standpoint, he is currently averaging more points per game than Jaylen Brown and Zion Williamson.

Meanwhile, Tyus Jones isn’t the scorer that Rozier and Murray are, but he’s debatably the best playmaker of the group and one of the better facilitators in the NBA right now. In his first season playing for the Washington Wizards, Jones is averaging 6.0 assists per game compared to just 0.9 turnovers per game.

Finally, Bruce Brown was just recently acquired by the Toronto Raptors in the trade package that sent Pascal Siakam to the Indiana Pacers. He is averaging 12.0 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game while shooting 47.9 percent from the floor across 35 combined appearances with the Pacers and Raptors this season.

The Lakers were also recently linked to Brown, Rozier and other players like Jerami Grant, Gary Trent Jr., Dorian Finney-Smith and Royce O’Neale.

Lakers fans won’t have to wait much longer to figure out if the team will decide to add one of Murray, Rozier, Jones and Brown via trade, as the trade deadline is on Feb. 8.