The Los Angeles Lakers have once again struggled to establish their game this season. They’ve won just two out of ten games and have looked terrible offensively, even though their defense has been mostly solid.
Having Russell Westbrook come off the bench has done wonders for them and the second unit. Still, it’s become evident that the roster was poorly built, and the players simply aren’t a good fit next to each other.
But as much as Rob Pelinka should be working overtime to try and fix the mess he got the team into, NBA insider Howard Beck reported that he’d only consider trading their first-round picks for a ‘mysterious’ player expected to be available.
NBA Rumors: Los Angeles Lakers Will Only Trade Their Picks For A ‘Mysterious’ Star
(Transcript via Fadeaway World)
“I will add one thing without going into all the detail, but I was canvassing a bunch of front office folks last week when I was workshopping my idea of ‘Can the Nets tear down now? Should they just tear down now? What could they reasonably get for Kevin Durant? Could they get anything for Kyrie Irving? Could they get anything at all for Ben Simmons?’” said Beck.
“And in those discussions, when I brought up the Lakers, the pushback I was getting was they’re waiting for a specific player. That they’re not doing the Pacer deal, that they won’t do the Kyrie deal now that we for sure thought they would do a couple months ago, is an indication that the Lakers are waiting for a bigger piece to come loose that they think they can trade Westbrook and the two future firsts for.”
Truth be told, all players not named LeBron James should be up for grabs, including Anthony Davis. Pelinka has done a terrible job of building this roster, and it doesn’t seem like he can afford to be this picky at this point.