The NBA offseason is off and running and so far, the Los Angeles Lakers have lost Dorian Finney-Smith to the Houston Rockets. That opened up the full mid-level exception though, which they used to sign Deandre Ayton and Jake LaRavia.
All of these moves are reported but will not be official until the start of the new league year on July 6. In the meantime, general managers across the league are getting creative to try and put the best possible rosters together.
Sometimes that includes turning free agent signings into sign-and-trades, and expanding deals to multiple teams. The Lakers were involved in one of those in the summer of 2021 when they acquired Russell Westbrook from the Washington Wizards, which was ultimately expanded into a five-team deal.
It appears Rob Pelinka may be getting in the mix again as according to Fred Katz of The Athletic, the Kevin Durant trade between the Rockets and Phoenix Suns could be expanded into a record seven-team deal with the Lakers being one of them:
League sources tell The Athletic that the Rockets and Suns are working on expanding the Kevin Durant trade into a deal that would involve a league-record seven teams. Other teams involved in negotiations at the moment include the Atlanta Hawks, Brooklyn Nets, Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves, league sources say.
No trade is imminent, and details are being ironed out as of Wednesday night.
In a would-be seven-team trade, there is an unprecedented amount of detail. Unfortunately, while a seven-team trade would make for a thrilling topic at a cocktail party, there haven’t been many unexpected developments in these negotiations. At least in the iterations of the deal discussed so far, most of the recognizable names are from trades that have already been agreed to and reported but not yet finalized.
The Hawks would be sending Clint Capela to the Rockets in what would become a sign-and-trade, league sources say. Durant would go to Houston. The previously reported return for him, including Dillon Brooks and Jalen Green, would go to Phoenix. Only five players who were in the NBA last season are being discussed in the current iteration of the trade, as of now: Durant, Brooks, Green, Clint Capela and Daeqwon Plowden, league sources say. The rest of the players being discussed are all from already-agreed-upon draft-night trades that are yet to be finalized and can’t be until July 6.
It’s unclear what the Lakers’ exact involvement in the trade would be, but it likely would be nothing major. Perhaps they are turning the Finney-Smith deal into a sign-and-trade to generate a trade exception, or maybe they are acquiring a player like Nick Richards from the Suns, who would be absorbed into their bi-annual exception.
The other possibility is that the Lakers’ trade up in the draft for Adou Thiero, which involved the Minnesota Timberwolves, is being looped in considering they are one of the other six teams.
Lakers have reported interest in Nick Richards
If the Lakers were to acquire Richards then it wouldn’t come as a surprise as they have had reported interest in him since he appeared to become expendable when the Suns drafted Khaman Maluach and traded for Mark Williams.
The Lakers acquiring Richards would give them a formidable center duo along with Ayton, although it obviously remains to be seen if that would be L.A.’s involvement in the potential trade considering he is not listed in the report.
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