The Los Angeles Lakers have yet to make any moves to differentiate their roster from a season ago, when they finished as a Play-In team, earned the No. 7 seed and lost in the first round of the playoffs. But recently, rumors have begun circulating that the team is looking to trade D’Angelo Russell and that a Jerami Grant deal with the Portland Trail Blazers could be in the works.
Grant is a prototypical three-and-D wing that would instantly improve the team on both ends of the floor. However, his asking price from the Trail Blazers remains high and his contract — four years, $132.4 million with a player option on Year 4 — is a hard pill to swallow.
In order for L.A. to deal for Grant, they need to find a trade that both meets the Trail Blazers’ draft compensation demands and also sends out more money than they receive. Russell’s $18.7 million contract would have made that an easy path, but Portland reportedly isn’t interested, according to Jovan Buha of The Athletic:
“I’ve heard Portland doesn’t want D-Lo because they have a million guards anyway. So, it just doesn’t really make sense for them.”
If the Trail Blazers truly have no interest in acquiring Russell, that leaves the Lakers with two options. The more difficult would be to find a third team that does want Russell, and have that team help the Lakers compensate the Trail Blazers. The easier is to find a different path to Grant’s $29,793,104 figure.
If Russell cannot be included, that means Rui Hachimura would almost certainly have to be involved in the deal. Hachimura’s $17 million is just below Russell’s deal and shouldn’t change too much else about the deal. And the Lakers can justify the change by saying that Grant is simply an improved version of Hachimura.
Hachimura and Gabe Vincent ($11 million) fall just shy of Grant’s figure, but if the Lakers threw in one of their minimum contracts — likely Cam Reddish or Christian Wood — then the deal can move forward. It’s unclear if the Trail Blazers would have any interest in that, but it provides an alternate path for L.A.
Lakers have interest in Cam Johnson
The Lakers also have other players they’d like to acquire besides Jerami Grant, giving them a hint of leverage in trade talks. One of those players is Brooklyn Nets forward Cameron Johnson, who maybe is not as good as Grant, but provides a similar fit on a cheaper contract.
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