Lakers Rumors: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Targeted By Lakers Ahead Of Season?
Did your Los Angeles Lakers actually think they could ship Russell Westbrook back to the Oklahoma City Thunder for OKC's best player?
Apparently!
On this week's episode of their The Ringer NBA podcast Real Ones, former frequent Lakers opponent Raja Bell and co-host Logan Murdoch spoke with The Athletic's Sam Amick about potential Lakers trades. Amick offered up this fun-if-unlikely fringe preseason hope (h/t to Donny McHenry of Silver Screen And Roll):
“My mind goes to, even if it’s unlikely at this point, the star player trade… months ago there was this kind of ‘pie in the sky’ sense from the Lakers of ‘Well, if Oklahoma City completely tanks, let’s go get Shai.’ Like, I heard Shai’s name coming out of that Lakers camp. But it’s just a dream... Don’t get too excited. It’s not happening. I wrote something about it a couple of weeks ago and, boy, did I hear about it from the Thunder.”
Though the Thunder love accruing draft picks, SGA is operating at such a high level for the team right now that it's hard to see Oklahoma City parting with the 6'6" combo guard for anything below the princely sums the Utah Jazz got back for Rudy Gobert or Donovan Mitchell. It's also possible that OKC team president Sam Presti might just be so enamored with Gilgeous-Alexander, who is playing at a borderline All-NBA level on a decent Thunder team (that still has time to tank by sitting him out because of "injuries," should it so choose), that he opts to keep him around.
Gilgeous-Alexander is currently averaging 31.1 points on .500/.324/.926 shooting splits, 6.0 assists, 4.7 rebounds, 1.7 steals, and 1.1 blocks for the 11-14 Thunder.
The most Los Angeles could offer in a deal prior to draft day 2023 is two future first-round draft picks and the expiring $47.1 million contract of Westbrook. That may just not be enough. A Big Three of Gilgeous-Alexander, LeBron James and Anthony Davis, surrounded by a bit more shooting than this current team (perhaps via a Patrick Beverley/Kendrick Nunn deal?) could make this club quite formidable in the West.
