Multiple teams have checked in on the Bulls‘ asking price for Lonzo Ball, sources tell Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link). While it’s unclear if the Lakers are one of those teams, Jovan Buha of The Athletic believes they could make a run at the 27-year-old, whom the Lakers drafted No. 2 overall back in 2017.
“I think Lonzo is someone that’s going to be on their radar, and I think depending on the price if you could get him for a second or two seconds, I think that’s an interesting swing, and also someone with that 6’6” frame that could potentially I think be similar to Bruce Brown, check a couple boxes,” Buha told Jason Timpf on the Hoops Tonight podcast (YouTube video link).
Ball is currently on a $21.4MM expiring deal. Across 24 healthy contests this season, the 6’6″ guard is averaging 6.5 points, 3.7 assists, and 3.3 rebounds a night in 20.5 minutes per.
” … He’s bulked up a little bit throughout his career, so he can guard twos and even some smaller threes and potentially be part of a one-through-three switching scheme,” Buha continued (hat tip to Paul Kasabian of Bleacher Report). “And then offensively I think especially coming off the bench as a secondary ball-handler, playmaker and also a spot-up shooter, I think he’s someone who’s an interesting gamble for them.”
Tim Bontemps and Brian Windhorst of ESPN took stock of the Lakers’ projected deadline plans. Even though the fifth-seeded Lakers are currently just three games ahead of the No. 11 Warriors in the Western Conference’s playoff race, sources tell Bontemps and Windhorst that the Lakers front office hasn’t shown any signs of aggression as of late.
L.A. has been reluctant in recent years to include any future first-round draft selections in a deal and it doesn’t appear that stance has changed, per ESPN’s duo. When the team moved D’Angelo Russell last month, it surrendered its lone big expiring contract, which will make it more difficult to complete additional trades.
Bontemps and Windhorst opine that if the Lakers make another move before this season’s February 6 deadline, it could be a relatively modest deal, in line with the team’s acquisition for Dorian Finney-Smith. That lines up with recent reporting from Buha.
Alex Kirschenbaum contributed to this report.