With the NBA trade deadline less than two months away (Feb. 20), the trade speculation surrounding the Los Angeles Lakers will likely kick into high gear. Every single season, no matter the team’s record or situation, the Lakers seem to be involved in a number of different trade scenarios with Pau Gasol usually at the center of it all.
Recently, a report surfaced about the Lakers taking Gasol off the trading block. Although that may change in the next month or so, Gasol is currently not a part of trade package the Lakers are discussing. The same can’t be said for sharpshooter Jodie Meeks.
According to Ric Bucher of Bleacher Report, the Lakers may be dangling Meeks in a swap for Jerryd Bayless:
The Memphis Grizzlies are clearly looking to shake up their roster. While the Zach Randolph-to-New Orleans rumors were dismissed by a league source, a Lakers source says they were offered a swap of scoring guards, Jerryd Bayless for Jodie Meeks.
After the loss to the Miami Heat on Christmas Day, the Lakers are sitting at 13-16 on the season losing seven of their last 10 games. It’s no secret at this point in time that something needs to happen in order to help turn this thing around in Los Angeles.
The fact that the Lakers are pursuing Bayless is interesting as it likely won’t improve this team’s chances of winning night in and night out. Bayless is not a great shooter or distributor making the move to trade Meeks a bit ill-advised.
Meeks is currently having a career year with the Lakers scoring a career-high 12.9 points per game while shooting 41 percent from beyond the arc which is also a career-high. The 26-year-old has made a vast improved from his first year in Los Angeles and continues to play consistently well on a nightly basis.
It’ll be interesting to see what direction the Lakers go in from now until the trade deadline. Openly shopping Meeks in exchange for Bayless doesn’t make that much sense, but there are a few players in Memphis that might intrigued the Lakers like Mike Conley and Zach Randolph.
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