The Los Angeles Lakers have struggled to be at their best this season. They've been inconsistent, their effort in the defensive end has been lacking, and all players not named LeBron James have vastly underperformed.
You never know what version of the Lakers you're going to get. They can either pull off a massive dud against a lesser team or take the competition up a notch as they did against the Utah Jazz.
That's not going to get the job done in the Western Conference, which is why most insiders expect them to be quite aggressive ahead of the trade deadline. The only problem is they don't have many - or any - valuable trade assets.
NBA Rumors: Lakers Want To Trade Talen Horton-Tucker
So, according to Dan Woke of the Los Angeles Times, the Lakers may have finally accepted the fact that they need to part ways with Talen Horton-Tucker. While inconsistent on a limited role, he's the only young player on their roster actually valued by other teams:
"According to people with knowledge of the situation, the team is shopping 21-year-old Talen Horton-Tucker in trade discussions," Woke reported. "Rival general managers believe the Lakers value Horton-Tucker, but they lack the mid-range contracts needed to put together a deal to upgrade their roster and understand no significant trade is getting made without him."
Jerami Grant May Not Want To Play For The Lakers
The Lakers were reportedly quite interested in trading for Detroit Pistons' Jerami Grant. Nonetheless, Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report recently stated that Grant may not want to be the fourth scoring option behind LeBron, Anthony Davis, and Russell Westbrook:
"For any team to sign off on a trade for Grant, they'll need assurances of his plans to re-sign this offseason, just like Gordon did in Denver," Fischer wrote. "Grant also has little interest in joining a new situation where he doesn't feature as a primary offensive option, sources said."
In reality, there's only so much the Lakers can do in the deadline, and chances are they'll find more success in the buyout market. Kendrick Nunn has yet to play this season due to injury and neither of their veterans will gauge a lot of trade interest either.
