The latest Lakers trade rumors to know before the deadline
By Jason Reed
The Los Angeles Lakers could get first-round picks out of Julius Randle or Jordan Clarkson
When it comes to trading Clarkson and Randle, the popular consensus is that the Lakers will receive some sort of expiring deal that will open cap space for superstars to join LA during the summer.
However, either as an additional piece to that consensus or as a completely different trade return, it is looking like the Lakers could land a first-round draft pick for either star. Of course, this is huge as the young Lakers do not have any first round picks in the 2018 draft. Even if the selection is in the 20s, we all saw how 27th overall pick Kyle Kuzma turned out.
ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, on The Lowe Post Podcast, stated that the Los Angeles Lakers have received deals that potentially could have landed them first round picks (h/t LakersNation). However, as Shelburne continues, it becomes clear that the Lakers would not actually save much contract space instead; the draft picks were to make up for that.
And that is an interesting idea for the Los Angeles Lakers. On one hand, you want to free up as much space to bring in as many superstars as you can. On the other hand, the team already has enough cap space for one star and the second is not guaranteed.
This kind of tradeoff would make sense for Julius Randle. If Los Angeles was getting a contract around $5 million for Randle, along with a first-round pick, it makes perfect sense. Randle is going to walk away anyway.
However, I would strongly advise against the Los Angeles Lakers trading Jordan Clarkson for anything other than salary cap space; unless they get a top three pick out of it (which is highly unlikely anyway).