With the season certainly heading down the drain at this point, the Los Angeles Lakers are reportedly prepared to start the cleansing process that will hopefully land them LeBron James and/or Paul George.
According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, young role players Jordan Clarkson, Julius Randle, and Larry Nance are on the trade block.
The Los Angeles Lakers, needing to shed salary for summer free agency, had been hopeful of waiting until the end of the season to move Jordan Clarkson — owed $26 million beyond this season — but there’s a mutual desire to find something sooner than later. The Lakers have made it clear that Clarkson, Julius Randle, and Larry Nance are available.Clarkson is averaging 14.2 points and 3.1 assists, Randle 13.2 points and 6.8 rebounds, and Nance 8.6 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game this season.
Los Angeles has given up hope on unloading Luol Deng’s contract in a trade because it would simply necessitate attaching too many draft assets.
The Lakers and Deng haven’t discussed a buyout since late November, but he can simply wait until the season is over to get the full balance of the $37 million owed to him once the Lakers inevitably use the waive and stretch provision to clear salary-cap space. How could the Lakers avoid Deng’s money languishing on the cap for six years with the waive and stretch? Well, Deng would have to be so desperate to leave Los Angeles before season’s end to sign elsewhere on a minimum deal that he’d forfeit the $18.8 million on the 2019-20 season of his contract and accept a buyout. That makes little sense, getting just a half-season of freedom to likely play only a few minutes per game elsewhere.
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