The Los Angeles Lakers offseason has been a total failure so far. The last 24 hours have not been a fun one for the purple and gold as the Lakers have repeatedly failed to land quality free agents. The Lakers were in negotiations to acquire four-time NBA champion Klay Thompson, but he was acquired by the Dallas Mavericks.
That limits the Lakers’ options: They had a chance to acquire Thompson, but the Warriors were unwilling to trade starting guard D’Angelo Russell for him.
According to Bleacher Report’s Chris Haynes, the Lakers tried to trade Russell to acquire Thompson, but the Warriors rejected the offer.
“I heard the Lakers made a pretty attractive offer,” Haynes said, “three or four years, maybe $20 million a year, but they didn’t get the player they wanted.”
“And it was obviously going to be a sign-and-trade scenario. So it had nothing to do with LeBron James’ decision to sign for less money. It would have taken a sign-and-trade to get Klay, and that didn’t happen. I was told that to get Klay, D’Angelo Russell would probably have been in the deal. And from what I’ve heard, [Golden State] The Warriors had no interest in bringing back D’Angelo Russell.”
Had the Warriors agreed to acquire Russell, he would have returned to the Bay Area, where he spent half of the 2019-20 season after being traded to Golden State for superstar Kevin Durant in a sign-and-trade deal.
The Lakers are trying their best to get out of Russell’s contract, but according to this report, it’s 1-0 so far. The veteran point guard recently picked up his $18.7 million player option and wants to remain with the Lakers. But his time in Los Angeles has been a rollercoaster ride, and it will be interesting to see if Rob Pelinka can pull a rabbit out of his hat to strengthen his team in the coming days/weeks.
Lakers news: Lakers reportedly offer Klay Thompson