Lakers Rumors: Josh Hart is the most tradeable player
By Keith Rivas
The latest Lakers rumors address why trade rumors should start and stop with Josh Hart.
Out of all of the players that the Los Angeles Lakers have in their young nucleus, it seems to fluctuate in terms of talking about what players might be shipped out of town. For a while it was D’Angelo Russell and Julius Randle, with only the former dealt.
For a brief moment in time, it seemed like perhaps the Lakers would consider doing that with Brandon Ingram if things didn’t pan out to meet the expectations of team president Magic Johnson.
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However, now the Lakers are in a situation where, because of Lonzo Ball, everything is clicking. They might have only won two of their first five games, but they have a chance at something special if they stick with it through the course of this season.
Knowing that a trade for a star could be on the horizon, even for a guy like Eric Bledsoe from Phoenix, there aren’t many variations of trade packages that the Lakers could (wisely) offer. Sure, they could always include a bigger name, but why risk it?
If they can prove they are able to win games with the young core that they’ve got, stars will automatically be attracted to Los Angeles again after having quite some time in free agency fallout.
A trade involving Josh Hart is the only way it seems that the Lakers can get out of their Luol Deng dilemma. With Luke Walton making it clear that the veteran forward isn’t going to part of any rotation plans, it’s hard to understand why LA would want to keep his money on the books.
Including Josh Hart gives the team on the other side of the trade a chance to work with a young and talented guard without getting one of the core pieces to the puzzle like Lonzo Ball or Brandon Ingram.
Next: How The Lakers Can Pull Off The Eric Bledsoe Trade
If you’re looking at teams like Phoenix as well, they could get desperate to dump Bledsoe and from there, the Lakers might be able to figure out some sort of leverage. On top of that, Hart hasn’t really established himself as a game-changer for the team, and that would really be the nail in the coffin as to why the Lakers wouldn’t have — or at least shouldn’t have — a hard time parting ways.