Lakers Will Be 'Star Hunting' This Offseason, Per Report

Los Angeles will look to acquire another big name.

The Los Angeles Lakers entered Sunday with a 41-33 record, good for ninth in the Western Conference. The organization will have to balance playoff seeding with the health of LeBron James in the final weeks of the regular season, but the Lakers are on pace to enter postseason play with both James and Anthony Davis at full capacity. That means Los Angeles has a chance against anyone, whether it comes in the Play-In Tournament or a standard seven-game series.

However, this Lakers team is not considered to be a true title contender. James and Davis remain one of the league's premier one-two punches but the rest of the roster isn't all too threatening compared to true beasts of the West like the Denver Nuggets or Minnesota Timberwolves. It is a problem Los Angeles must address next offseason barring an incredibly unlikely championship run. If the organization wants LeBron to stick around for a few more years they have to prove to him, again, that they'll go to great lengths to put real star power around him.

So it shouldn't come as a big surprise to hear reports suggesting the Lakers will be actively hunting for another high-level player to group with James and Davis. The Athletic's Jovan Buha reported the team is going "third star hunting" this summer, and named Trae Young as one of several targets they could pursue:

“Yes, they are,” Buha said when asked if the Lakers are going to chase a third star. “And I can confirm that from multiple sources. They are going third-star hunting this offseason. And we’ll see how that affects the D-Lo (D’Angelo Russell) situation. We’ll see how — you probably have to give up Austin [Reaves] in almost any…third-star trade. … Now, who’s available? The one name I continually hear is Trae Young. He’s been to Laker playoff games before. He’s a Klutch Sports client. That’s probably the most realistic one right now.

“What happens with Dallas and Kyrie [Irving]? Do they flame out? Do they lose in the play-in? Do they lose in round one? Does Dallas ultimately break that up? And then what’s the market for Kyrie? Donovan Mitchell, it seems like there’s been a little bit more growing optimism and buzz that he’s gonna stay in Cleveland. But even if he leaves, the two New York teams have reportedly been the favorites just because he’s from the greater New York area.”

Young does indeed seem to be the most likely candidate to end up a Laker compared to these other names. LeBron and the Lakers declined a chance to get on the Kyrie Irving train when he requested a trade out of Brooklyn last year. Donovan Mitchell may not love Cleveland but they aren't going to give him up for cheap, given he has one more year left on his contract, and there's the aforementioned New York factor.

Young, as Buha notes above, is a Klutch Sports client, a factor always in play when it comes to the Lakers. He led the Atlanta Hawks to another underwhelming season, with the team currently on pace to finish 10th overall in the East. Most importantly, Young's supermax deal runs for another three seasons. By targeting Young, the Lakers would be going after a 25-year-old highlight-reel point guard who will be in LA until he is 28 and could very well stick around through his prime seasons.

Of course, the Hawks are going to want a king's ransom for their franchise player. If they even decide to trade Young, which is far from a guarantee. Los Angeles has some decent pieces, like the aforementioned Austin Reaves, but they aren't overflowing with assets. Trading for Young might be trickier in practice.

The Lakers are always star-hunting because they're the Lakers. It's what they do. From the sounds of it, though, this offseason might be more active on that front than it has been in years.

Liam McKeone is an editor at The Big Lead.