Despite winning the In-Season NBA Tournament, the Los Angeles Lakers find themselves at a mediocre 16-15 heading into Thursday’s game against the Charlotte Hornets.
Los Angeles has lost five of six, including a defeat at home against the Boston Celtics on Christmas Day. Things just are not going swimmingly behind the star duo of LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
It has led to widespread speculation that the Lakers are going to be active ahead of the Feb. 8 NBA trade deadline.
This latest report from Shams Charania of The Athletic specifically mentions Atlanta Hawks All-Star guard Dejounte Murray.
The New York Knicks are also seemingly in on Murray who could be dealt with the Hawks going nowhere fast this season. New York could also offer up more in a hypothetical trade for Murray than the Los Angeles Lakers.
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How a Dejounte Murray trade to the Los Angeles Lakers might look
Murray, 27, continues to play stellar ball for the Hawks. He’s averaging 20.2 points, 4.5 rebounds and 5.3 assists on 46% shooting from the field.
An All-Star with the San Antonio Spurs during the 2021-22 season, Murray signed a four-year, $114 million contract extension back in July. This certainly complicates things from the Lakers’ perspective. It also must be noted that Murray can’t be traded until Jan. 5.
Any move of this ilk would likely require Los Angeles giving up fan favorite Austin Reaves and a first-round pick to Atlanta.
The idea here would be to team Murray up with D’Angelo Russell to form a new starting backcourt to go with James and Davis in the frontcourt.
But as noted above, the Knicks could potentially offer up more. Los Angeles can’t move its first-round pick until 2029. As of right now, the Knicks are projected to have two first-round picks in 2024 as well as at least two more in 2025.