Ny/LA

[nazrmohamed]

ssociated Press
The Los Angeles Lakers are reportedly looking to trade some of their younger players in an effort to "shed salary for summer free agency."

Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com reported the news Monday, noting the Lakers have made Julius Randle and Larry Nance Jr. available in potential trades. Wojnarowski also wrote "there's a mutual desire to find something sooner than later" when discussing a possible Jordan Clarkson trade even though Los Angeles was previously hoping to wait until the end of the season.

So recently we've been talking about trades and clearing the logjam we have at Center and one team that might be of interest is the Lakers. They seemingly have only one legit big in Robin who doesn't look the part of a rebuilding C. And now they're looking to see what they can do with these guys, all of which are pretty young. At first this was gonna be a WHG trade post but I can see different values for any of our bigs. With that said, here are some options:

Oquinn for Randle works straight up. You might have to throw in a second rounder just off Randall potential but not much. Oquinn is already a more productive player. Not that it makes him more valuable but I wouldn't add much more. It gives the Lakers a productive Gruber that plays a position they are weak at. For the Knicks, again it clears our logjam and gives us another player from KPs draft range for years to come.

Kanter plus 2 second and next years second rounder for all three should work. Lakers get a player whose been as productive as any two players combined as well as at least 3 second rounders. Knicks again, clear the jam and get three prospects to aid the long term rebuild.

WHG plus Jack for Randall. I'm just about tired of saying it clears the jam. But it also clears any resistance to starting Frank. He'll get minutes, Oquinn can stop looking over his shoulder (maybe not).

Obviously you can see by now that Randall is in every scenario but I like the idea of him. Maybe I'm wrong but I want my stretch 4 and in allot of ways a ball handling 4. Understandably the question is why covet him with Beasley here but Nearly is more my short term option and I like how he's performed but I got no plans top give him a long term deal. Randall is essentially long term Beasely.

[spree#8]

How does Randle clear the logjam? He is a 4/5 in todays NBA, the same as O'Quinn (who has a PO for next season). Lakers also can't trade for Kanter, because he still is under contract for next year at a high rate until he opts out (which isn't likely IMO), so I don't think such a NY/LA trade is likely.

Lakers likely look for an expiring (without options) and a pick or a young player. So your third option (Willy/Jack) could function. If we do something like that, it should be Sessions/Willy in a hurry though, so we replace Sessions and Willy with Randle and Burke. Ideally we should trade Willy for a SF/PF though, who is more on the SF side. If we trade Willy at all.

The latter trade solves the Lakers' problem to lose Randle for nothing, but it doesn't create more cap room (it actually takes some if Willy is in it), so I'm not sure if that is what they look for. A trade of Clarkson and Randle for a big expiring is probably more likely, but we don't have such a contract and I'm not sure if we would want Clarkson's contract.

[taowave]

I'm with Spree..Willy is the only possibility,and you would have to throw in a second rounder.