Lakers Saving Draft Picks to Acquire $251 Million Superstar or $215 Million All-Star: Report

Getty Zach LaVine guards Bradley Beal on February 8, 2021

The Los Angeles Lakers are reportedly saving their draft picks in 2027 and 2029 to acquire a $251 million superstar or $215 million All-Star.

Marc Stein of Substack reported on January 9 that rival teams believe the Lakers are keeping their picks in case Washington Wizards shooting guard Bradley Beal or Chicago Bulls shooting guard Zach LaVine become available.

“The belief in some rival front offices persists that the Lakers are saving those picks for a splashier trade target such as Washington’s Bradley Beal or Chicago’s Zach LaVine,” Stein wrote.

The Lakers have been heavily linked to Beal and LaVine. Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report reported on November 10 that the Lakers are interested in trading for Beal. Meanwhile, Michael Scotto of HoopsHype reported on January 5 that if the Bulls make LaVine available before the trade deadline, rival executives think the Lakers will try to acquire the two-time All-Star.

Beal signed a five-year, $251 million contract with the Wizards in July. He has a no-trade clause in his contract, so the Lakers can only acquire Beal if he requests a trade from Washington and approves a move to Los Angeles.

LaVine can’t be traded until January 15 since he signed a new contract with the Bulls in July. The UCLA product agreed to a five-year, $215.2 million deal. LaVine has the same agent (Rich Paul of Klutch Sports Group) as Lakers superstars LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

Can the Lakers Trade Russell Westbrook Back to the Wizards for Bradley Beal?

On the December 16 episode of “The Lowe Post” podcast, ESPN’s Zach Lowe said some front office people he’s talked to think the Wizards should trade Beal to the Lakers for Russell Westbrook and LA’s first-round picks in 2027 and 2029. Los Angeles and Washington completed a Westbrook trade during the summer of 2021.

“Last month, I surveyed 20 front office people and I just asked them, ‘How do you even value (Beal’s) contract.’ And I asked through the lens of the Lakers,” Lowe said. “I asked through the lens of like, ‘Is Russ and the two unprotected picks, is that fair value for Bradley Beal?’ And if you asked 25 people around the league, you would get everything from. … You’d get some people saying, ‘Oh my god no, Bradley Beal is a top 25 player, multiple time All-NBA player. That’s not even close to requisite value for Bradley Beal.’ And then you’d get another group of people who’d be like, ‘Honestly, anything the Wizards can get to get off of that contract, they should probably do it.’”

Beal would be an excellent fit next to James and Davis since he’s an elite three-level scorer. The three-time All-Star is a career 37.1% shooter from beyond the arc. He can space the floor for James and Davis, who need more shooters around them.

“If the Lakers can ever get their hands on Beal, he could be the biggest hope to cure much of what ails their punch-less offense,” Bleacher Report’s Zach Buckley wrote on November 22. “The fact that he operates as both an on-ball shot-creator and an off-ball spot-up shooter means he should be a snug fit both alongside L.A.’s other stars and by himself when the others need a breather.”

How Can the Lakers Get Zach LaVine from the Bulls?

Under CBA rules, the Lakers can trade Patrick Beverley, Kendrick Nunn, Lonnie Walker IV, Damian Jones, Max Christie, Juan Toscano-Anderson and their two picks in 2027 and 2029 to the Bulls for LaVine. According to a December 9 report from Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago isn’t interested in acquiring Westbrook despite the one-time MVP being on an expiring contract.

LaVine, like Beal, is a special scorer and sharpshooter. He’s a career 38.8% shooter on 3-pointers. In a December 21 column called “Bulls’ Turmoil Has Teams Eyeing Trades for All-Star, Key Role Player,” Heavy.com senior insider Sean Deveney posted quotes he received from an Eastern Conference executive. The exec told Deveney that LaVine “wants to go to the Lakers.”

“LaVine wants to go to the Lakers, that has been pretty clear for a while now,” the exec said. “The agents (from Klutch Sports) want him to be in Los Angeles, he is a UCLA guy and they did some rattling about his contract last offseason, to kind of lay the groundwork if things blew up. Which they seem to be doing.”