With the annual NBA trade deadline less than a month away, all eyes have been on teams near the bottom of the standings who could look to offload veterans in exchange for draft capital.
The Los Angeles Lakers have been stuck in an unenviable position as they have been weighing whether or not to trade their precious future first-round picks for help in the short term to aid LeBron James and Anthony Davis. While James publicly said that his patience isn’t waning, there is still pressure on the front office to make some sort of move to help the King because he’s playing at an MVP level.
As always, Los Angeles has been linked to every possible trade target including the Detroit Pistons’ Bojan Bogdanovic. The Lakers’ interest in Bogdanovic dates back to the offseason and it appears that hasn’t changed as the sharpshooter is having a great 2022-23 season.
Although Bogdanovic would be a perfect piece to add to the roster, the Lakers reportedly have decided that the current asking price for him is just too much for them, via NBA reporter Marc Stein:
And they also decided that trading one of those picks with no draft protections attached (along with the expiring contracts of Patrick Beverley and Kendrick Nunn) was too high a price for Detroit’s Bojan Bogdanović.
While the Pistons are going to miss the playoffs, they have no reason to drop their asking price because there aren’t many reported sellers quite yet. The Play-In Tournament has given teams less incentive to tank, meaning that prices shouldn’t be expected to drop until the week of the deadline.
When it comes to the Lakers specifically, the rest of the league will try to fleece them in any deal because they are the ones operating with more urgency to get a deal done. That fact coupled with interest from other teams for the same players will mean they’ll need to come off their stance on the picks if they’re serious about getting a deal done.
From now until the deadline, reports like this will continue to pop up and for the Lakers, the only thing they can do is try to win more games.
LeBron James reiterates focus is on winning, not breaking records
Even in the twilight of his career, James remains one of the best players in the NBA and as such deserves a chance to compete for titles. While some of the focus of this season has been on the records he’s on pace to break, he emphasized that he is only focused on winning.
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