Lakers Rumors: LA Would Need to Attach Draft Pick to Trade Veteran Forward

The Los Angeles Lakers could be one of the few teams to make a trade or two as we approach the highly anticipated trade deadline.

The NBA trade deadline is about two weeks away, on Feb. 6, and it is no secret that the Lakers are a team that could be the most active.

The Lakers could go many different ways, as not many of their players, outside of Anthony Davis, LeBron James, and Austin Reaves, appear to be safe from being traded.

Other than those three, the rest of the roster is fair game, including their defensive-minded forward, Jarred Vanderbilt.

Although Vanderbilt is a tremendous defensive forward, he has not played basketball in nearly a year. Because his value is not tremendously high, if the Lakers were to deal him in the coming weeks, teams may seek a first-round pick in return alongside Vanderbilt.

The Athletic's Jovan Buha shared in his latest podcast episode.

"For the Lakers to include Vando, they would probably have to put a first round pick just as an attachment to Vando," Buhan said (1:02:00 mark). "Forget the other stuff that your giving up... That's the one issue is that for this to work, it would actually be one first (round pick) and Rui (Hachimura) and a player and then probably a first (round pick) to Toronto or Chicago to take on Vando's salary."

"He has three more years left. He is a player who is offensively limited, has dealt with injuries and a lot of people view that as a very negative contract so, that's the complicating factor here," Buha added."

The 25-year-old is currently in the second year of a four-year, $48 million contract that he signed after the 2022-23 season, his first with the Lakers.

While the numbers don't jump off the page for Vanderbilt, his energy and style of play certainly do, as numbers don't tell the whole story with him.

It's unclear who would be interested in Vanderbilt, as he is still recovering from two offseason foot surgeries. He is expected to be back sometime before the deadline, but nothing is set in stone.

In his career, Vanderbilt averages 6.1 points per game, 6.4 rebounds, 1.4 assists, and 1.1 steals in 273 games and 20.5 mintes per game.

Since last season, Vanderbilt has played in only 29 games out of a possible 122 as of Monday.

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