Lakers News: L.A. Reportedly Remains Open To Trade For Bojan Bogdanovic
It seems that your Los Angeles Lakers remain interested in veteran Detroit Pistons stretch four Bojan Bogdanovic, after outreach to his former club, the Utah Jazz, ultimately did not yield a fruitful trade over the summer.
Although Bogdanovic inked a two-year, $39 million contract extension with Detroit last month, Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports reports that the team may still be looking to move him later.
“What it really does is it gives them contract control so it’s easier to trade him in July,” an assistant general manager informed Fischer, “when a team that needs him is far more likely to have cap space and wiggle room.”
Fischer notes that, though the Lakers and Phoenix Suns did contact the Jazz about a potential deal last summer, the team opted to flip Bogdanovic to the Pistons instead. But that doesn't mean he'll be a Piston forever, or that those teams are no longer interested. The Milwaukee Bucks are also apparently interested in trading for Bogdanovic to add more shooting depth to the club.
Fischer notes that the Pistons could cobble together the contracts of Bogdanovic, shooting guard Alec Burks, and overpaid deep bench center Nerlens Noel, to match the $47.1 million salary of sixth man Russell Westbrook in a potential trade. Fischer notes that this haul would not yield a return as solid as Indiana Pacers veterans Myles Turner and Buddy Hield, in terms of the quality players involved, but would quite possibly enable the Lakers to hold onto one of its very valuable future first-round picks that it could flip in a deal, in either 2027 or 2029.
That would represent a whole lot of hedging. Would L.A., equipped with those players, even be good enough to be a guaranteed play-in team? This writer is dubious. So it would essentially be surrendering one incredibly valuable pick to placate its best players, who had surely hoped to contend this season. Ultimately, would that leave anybody satisfied?
