Lakers trade rumors: Los Angeles would like to trade for Bradley Beal

The Los Angeles Lakers were hooked up to Wizards All-Star Bradley Beal dating from 2018, when it was reported that they would have a hard time agreeing to trade Brandon Ingram for him. Once this season was over, there were rumors that Beal was a backup target if the team couldn’t land Anthony Davis, and before the NBA bubble last season, there was a buzz that the Lakers were interested. by a commercial agreement for Beal.

We all know what happened next. The Lakers have proven that they don’t need a Big Three to win a title, and that LeBron James and Anthony Davis along with a great supporting cast are good enough. They then went out and capped during the offseason while improving their roster, which made trading during the season difficult.

Nonetheless, we’re highlighting all of this as there are headlines linking Beal to the Lakers once again, so while a deal would be difficult and highly unlikely, their earlier interest is nonetheless worth noting. Because if GM Rob Pelinka has shown anything in his time in this role over the past year, it’s that he’s good at having contingency plans, so we can never rule out the Lakers completely. whatever it is.

The latest buzz comes from a somewhat offhand remark from Adrian Wojnarowski as he discussed Beal’s situation on ESPN’s “The Jump”, but given that Woj is as hip as he can get, his certainty is still worth it. worth noting (emphasis mine):

“There isn’t a team in the league that wouldn’t like to find a way to add Bradley Beal … I think for teams like Golden State or the Denvers, teams that have strengths that are contenders. when they’re healthy, but also, let’s say if you’re Golden State you have that Minnesota Draft pick, if you’re Denver you’ve got a great young player in Michael Porter Jr. you’ve got an All-Star to Jamal Murray in the backcourt. Now I’m not saying they’re going to do it, but you look at these teams and say ‘they have enough to join the conversation’.

“And that will be the decision of teams across the league. Of course, the Lakers and Clippers would love to be able to get involved in this, but do they have any draft picks? Do they have the young players it would take to dominate a package from other teams? Maybe not.

“And so you’re going to see a frenzy if and when Bradley Beal hits the market, and he’ll have a say in where he goes because of this contract situation. Unless a team just wants to make a trade and hope to convince them to stay long term and have him under contract next season, but it’s pretty risky for someone, you might be giving up several first round pick and probably your best young player. (for). I think these are all team considerations but boy I don’t think there will be many who aren’t going to call and sit and think ‘could we have Bradley Beal if he becomes available ? ‘ ‘

You can watch the full exchange from 3:30 p.m. below:

As real and serious as you think the Lakers’ interest was based on that – to me it seems Woj was just acknowledging that every team would like to trade for Beal, who is very good at basketball – I think we can all agree that it certainly doesn’t seem like anything is imminent. Beal hasn’t even asked to be released and is under contract until 2022, with a $ 36 million player option for the 2022-23 season.

Still, given how desperate the Wizards’ situation is and how the NBA works, it would be a real shock if Beal didn’t ask for treatment at some point (and it would be hard to blame him, to be honest. our sister site Wizards, Bullets Forever, gets it).

If he does, do the Lakers have what it takes to participate in the race? It’s hard to believe they could outbid the other teams unless Beal pulls an AD and scares the other contenders by only wanting to go to LA

Even then, because of the hard cap, it is almost impossible to make a deal work under the collective agreement. I spent about 10 minutes trying out the ESPN trading machine, and while Pelinka and the Lakers surely had better planning than that, it clearly wouldn’t be easy.

After the season it would potentially be easier, but still difficult due to the number of first-round picks the Lakers still tied up in Davis’ trade.

Image via Real GM

So basically as fun as it is to troll other NBA fans that Beal is a #FutureLaker – and it’s funny – it would also be quite difficult to get there. Which is good, because the Lakers are the favorites of the title as they are. Not a ton of teams that would try to participate in Beal’s seemingly inevitable draw can say the same.

For more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast on itunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google podcasts. You can follow Harrison on Twitter at @hmfaigen.