The Los Angeles Lakers have yet to make a big move this offseason, but they reportedly have plenty of options.
According to the Los Angeles Times’ Dan Woike, Lakers sources insist that they have more options than just what has been reported, which is mainly deals for Kyrie Irving or Buddy Hield and Myles Turner.
“If and when Kevin Durant and Donovan Mitchell get traded, the space to make a [Russell] Westbrook trade probably opens a little wider with the costs getting cleared,” Woike wrote. “Lakers sources insist they have options beyond the ones that have been reported (Irving, Buddy Hield, Myles Turner and others). Time should better reveal those once the bigger moves get made.”
For the Lakers to complete a major trade, they’d likely need to move off Westbrook and at least one first-round pick to incentivize a team to take on his contract.
So far this offseason, the Lakers made some minor moves, bringing in Damian Jones, Lonnie Walker IV, Juan Toscano-Anderson and Thomas Bryant. However, they also lost Malik Monk, who was one of the team’s most consistent offensive players in the 2021-22 season.
Even though the Lakers sources insist there are other options, none of them have materialized enough for Los Angeles to make a deal.
The Lakers may need some of the other dominoes to fall this offseason, whether it be a Durant trade or a Mitchell trade, to allow other teams to consider taking on Westbrook.
After missing the playoffs in the 2021-22 season, the Lakers need to build a team that can contend in the 2022-23 season, especially since LeBron James is now in the final year of his contract.
