Lakers Rumors: Larry Nance Jr. has started getting a lot of attention
By Keith Rivas
The latest Lakers rumors seem to be pointing towards the potential for a deal involving Larry Nance Jr.
While there’s no indication the team is ready to move forward on trade talks regarding Larry Nance Jr., it’s definitely surprising to hear his name come up and have the trade call conversation come from the mouth of Magic Johnson.
According to a report from SB Nation, here’s what Magic Johnson had to say about the situation involving Larry Nance Jr. and how the team sees him moving forward.
Per the report:
"President of basketball operations Magic Johnson joined ESPN’s First Take Tuesday morning, discussing what he envisions going forward for the franchise. As he was going down the Lakers’ roster, what he said once he arrived at Larry Nance, Jr. was certainly intriguing.“Our secret weapon is Larry Nance [Jr.], because Larry… we’ve gotten calls from a lot of teams that want to trade for him and Brandon Ingram. We said no. But Larry is such a fundamentally sound basketball player,” Johnson said."
What this does serve as with more certainty than any of the trade rumors is the fact that what the Lakers are putting together is really attractive to teams. It is also clear that keeping all of their players together is something that teams feel the need to step in-between.
Guys like D’Angelo Russell and Julius Randle were more heavily talked about in the rumor mill. One trade obviously happened with Brooklyn, but Randle’s game has seemed to improve on several levels following those reports.
It’s refreshing to see the faith that Magic Johnson can verbally have in guys outside of Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram. His relationship with D’Angelo Russell wasn’t one that was going to work in Los Angeles, and that was mainly rooted in how critical Johnson was of Russell’s apparent lack of leadership.
Next: Lakers Decide To Retire Both Of Kobe's Numbers
Moving forward though, don’t be surprised if the Lakers at least entertain the idea of trading Nance Jr. if he performs well to start the season and the right price comes along.