Lakers Saving Assets for Giannis Antetokounmpo Trade This Summer?

The NBA trade deadline is a little more than two weeks away, with the buzzer sounding on trades between teams around the league on Feb. 5, which is ironically when the Los Angeles Lakers' current eight-game road trip comes to an end.

With the Lakers losing five of their last seven games as they begin their road trip against the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday, the trade rumors involving the storied franchise are starting to heat up, with the consensus being that moves need to be made to make this roster a force to be reckoned with moving forward.

However, the Lakers' brass shouldn't make a move for the sake of a trade before February's deadline, as general manager Rob Pelinka and company should be planning for the long term rather than short-term satisfaction.

Lakers May Make a Run at Giannis Antetokounmpo This Summer

According to Zach Lowe of The Ringer, the Lakers are among a few teams in the league that could save their trade assets for a run at Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo during the NBA offseason.

“There are a number of teams that are like we’re not going to make a small incremental move this season if it costs us the ability to chase Giannis down the line. I think Miami is in that group. Atlanta may be in that group. The Lakers are in that group. The Warriors are in that group.”

With the LeBron James era of the Lakers seemingly coming to an end after the 2025-26 NBA season, and the franchise shifting to building around Luka Doncic moving forward, saving assets to try to bring in Antetokounmpo is without a doubt the smartest direction Los Angeles can go from here.

Although there are intriguing options out there, like trading for Herb Jones and or Trey Murphy III of the New Orleans Pelicans, standing pat might be the way to go despite the temptation to upgrade defensively with one or both of these stars out of the Big Easy.

At this point, it seems a matter of when, not if, Antetokounmpo gets traded. The superstar big man getting moved before the trade deadline doesn't seem likely, but getting traded in the offseason might be how things pan out in Milwaukee.

After getting the best of the Atlanta Hawks on Monday, Antetokounmpo was asked about his thoughts on teams holding off plans for trades ahead of the deadline to go after the one-time NBA champion, via Heat Central's X account.

Giannis Antetokounmpo with another very interesting post game interview 👀

Giannis Antetokounmpo on his thoughts about the league holding off their trade plans to wait and see what he decides:

“I can’t control that. I can’t control what other teams are doing. I just try to… pic.twitter.com/853HmMLGnY
— Heat Central (@HeatCulture13) January 20, 2026

“I can’t control that, I can’t control what other teams do, I just try to focus on doing my job, which is to compete and try to win games”, Antetokounmpo said.

The two-time NBA MVP seems content with the fact that his situation in Milwaukee is a hot topic around the league and is beyond his control, with no telling what the future holds.

“I don’t know," Antetokounmpo said on whether he'll finish the season with the Bucks. "I take it day by day.”

Outside of the Bucks turning things around or making a deal to pair Antetokounmpo with another star, the perennial All-Star may get traded this summer, but whether he'll get moved to the Lakers to play alongside Doncic remains to be seen.