Kiyoshi Mio – USA TODAY Sports
The Los Angeles Lakers have yet to make any moves to differentiate their team composition from last season, when they finished as a play-in team, earned the seventh seed and lost in the first round of the playoffs. However, rumors have recently begun circulating that the team is considering a trade for D’Angelo Russell and that a deal between Jeremi Grant and the Portland Trail Blazers may be in the works.
Grant is a prototypical three-and-defensive wing who would instantly strengthen a team on both ends of the court, but the Trail Blazers’ asking price for him remains high and his four-year, $132.4 million contract with a player option in the fourth year is hard to stomach.
For LA to acquire Grant, they would need to meet the Trail Blazers’ draft compensation demands and find a trade to send them more money than they would receive. That would have been an easy path with Russell’s $18.7 million contract, but Portland reportedly isn’t interested, according to The Athletic’s Jovan Buha.
“I heard Portland doesn’t want D-Lo because they have millions of guards, so it doesn’t make much sense for Portland.”
If the Trail Blazers are truly not interested in acquiring Russell, that leaves the Lakers with two options: The harder option is to find a third team that wants Russell and get that team to help the Lakers compensate the Trail Blazers, or the easier option is to find another way to make use of Grant’s $29,793,104.
If Russell can’t participate, Rui Hachimura will almost certainly have to be involved in the deal. Hachimura’s $17 million is slightly lower than Russell’s contract, so it wouldn’t change the deal too much, and the Lakers could justify the change by saying Grant is simply an improved version of Hachimura.
Hachimura and Gabe Vincent ($11 million) are just shy of Grant’s figure, but a deal could move forward if the Lakers were to drop one of the minimum contracts (perhaps Cam Reddish or Christian Wood). It’s unclear if the Trail Blazers would be interested in that, but it would be another avenue for LA.
Lakers interested in Cam Johnson
The Lakers have other players they would like to acquire besides Jeremy Grant that could give them leverage in trade negotiations, including Brooklyn Nets forward Cameron Johnson, who may not be as talented as Grant but could perform just as well on a cheaper contract.
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