Lakers Linked to Longtime Trade Target in 2023 Free Agency: NBA Exec

Jerami Grant (right)

Getty Jerami Grant (right)

The settlement of the contretemps between Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets finally allows the rest of the league to move ahead with its summer, and should have an impact on the Lakers, too. While two months ago it appeared inevitable that point guard Kyrie Irving would reunite with former Cavs teammate LeBron James in L.A., Irving is now poised to spend the year in Brooklyn, alongside Durant once again.

Other Lakers trade regrets have cropped up since—Donovan Mitchell, anyone?—but L.A. still has the potential to use a significant tool to upgrade the roster without coughing up picks. Only thing is, they would have to wait until 2023, when the team could create as much as $30 million in cap space (if Talen Horton-Tucker opts out).

A trade, like one for Mitchell or Buddy Hield of the Pacers, would chew into the cap space significantly or erase it altogether. But even if the Lakers do make a trade, if the player they receive has only one year left on his deal, 2023 cap space will still be on tap.

According to one Western Conference executive, that could put a talented player the Lakers have eyed for a while back into the team’s frame: Jerami Grant, the breakout forward for the Pistons who has since been traded to the Trail Blazers.


Exec: Grant ‘Will Be Out There’

The Blazers got Grant from Detroit for a modest price, sending out a 2025 first-round pick and two second-rounders. Grant is in the final year of his contract, worth $20 million, and averaged 19.2 points and 4.1 rebounds per game last year, though he shot only 42.6% from the field, one of the worst marks of his career. He is 28 and a plus defender at forward, though, making him of special interest to the Lakers.

“They could have some money to spend, the question is whether they want to spend it now (2023) or wait to see what they can get the following year (2024),” the executive told Heavy Sports. “It all might be a moot point anyway if they go and make a trade tomorrow and send out those picks, and bring back a Kyrie Irving or someone because you’d only do that if you are planning to pay him.

“But if they keep their space, then a lot of the guys they have been after for the last year are going to come free and they probably will be in position to get one. Jerami Grant will be up, Portland wants to keep him but he will be out there.”


Lakers Would Have to Lure Grant From Portland

That could be the most difficult part of attracting a player like Grant to L.A.—if Portland wants to keep him, they’d be able to sign him for a bigger contract because they own his so-called Bird rights. That will be true of most free agents the Lakers might target next summer should they have space available.

But there is a lure to playing for the Lakers, and to play alongside James, who is obviously in the twilight of his career and will go down among the best three or four players in league history.

And it won’t be too difficult for the Lakers to put forth a good offer for Grant. The $20 million he is making this year figures to be his salary range next year, too, unless he has a jaw-dropping season in Portland. The Lakers have been connected to Grant in trade rumors for the better part of two years now. Maybe just getting him in free agency is a better plan.

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