The Los Angeles Lakers have a good roster, but also one that has proven far from good enough in each of the past two postseasons when squaring off against some of the best Western Conference casts in years.
There is rarely a shortage of hope or optimism when it comes to the Lakers’ chances at their 18th NBA Championship banner with some of the more sobering voices around the league, like Tim Bontemps of ESPN, chastising media and fans of propagating unrealistic expectations and pie-in-the-sky dreams of winning at the highest level.
A multi-tiered proposal Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report authored on Wednesday, July 3, is liable to annoy the Bontemps types of the basketball universe, as it suggests a pathway for Los Angeles to first trade for Lauri Markkanen of the Utah Jazz and then execute a sign-and-trade deal with the Chicago Bulls for DeMar DeRozan.
DeMar DeRozan Among Players for Whom LeBron James Was Willing to Take Less Money
The pitch from Pincus begins with the Lakers sending the Jazz D’Angelo Russell, Rui Hachimura, Maxwell Lewis, Cam Reddish and Christian Wood along with first-round picks in 2029 and 2031 in exchange for Markkanen.
“Markkanen’s contract ($18.0 million) should make a deal [for L.A.] even more appealing,” Pincus wrote. “That’s quite the reset, and the Lakers still might [have] the flexibility to chase DeRozan via sign-and-trade without giving the Bulls any contracts back (though Chicago would need some form of compensation). If Los Angeles filled out the rest of its roster with minimum players, James would need to take about $7-$9 million below his max to make DeRozan work in addition to Markkanen.”
In the roughly 36 hours since Pincus authored his proposal, James has signed a near-maximum two-year deal worth $104 million to remain in Los Angeles, which includes a no-trade clause and a player option for 2025-26. That said, James floated a willingness at the beginning of free agency to take less money if the Lakers were able to secure one of a handful of players on the nearly $13 million standard mid-level exception (MLE). DeRozan was among the names included in the small group of qualifying prospects and is the only one still unsigned as of July 5.
Lakers Would Likely Need to Acquire More 1st-Round Picks in Order to Trade for Lauri Markkanen
The Pincus pitch could still theoretically work if a handful of events unfold perfectly in the Lakers’ favor.
First, the Jazz would need to express interest in dealing Markkanen for a bunch of average-to-bad players and only two first-round picks. Utah should eventually move its 7-foot All-Star, as his talent will stand in the way of the team being bad over the next two years. That is presumably the organization’s goal, as up to 13 of 15 Western Conference teams will compete for a playoff spot next season and the two upcoming drafts are stacked with potentially star-level talent.
Still, it is unlikely that two first-rounders are enough for Markkanen considering Danny Ainge, Utah’s CEO of basketball operations, brought back five first-rounders and then some for Rudy Gobert in a trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves just two years ago. As such, the Lakers would probably need to deal off some of its younger, developing talent in an effort to secure at least another first-round selection or two in order to create a package good enough to entice the Jazz.
Assuming all that happened, James would then need to come back to the Lakers and agree to re-work an already-signed contract to take less money in Year 1 of the deal. After that, DeRozan would need to agree to a contract that pays him less than half of the $28.6 million he earned from the Bulls in 2023-24 for the final season of his three-year, $82 million contract.
That is a hard sell for DeRozan, who will soon turn 35 years old, unless L.A. can convince him it has the kind of roster that can truly compete for a championship in the upcoming campaign.
