Brooklyn Nets center Nic Claxton is one of the main players under contract for the Nets next season that the team is depending on to be a leader on and off the floor. While Brooklyn is hoping that Claxton will remain with the team for the time being as the franchise navigates its latest rebuild, there seems to be some teams with real interest in Claxton this offseason.

“Multiple Lakers outlets have reported on ‘theoretical’ trades involving Nets center Nic Claxton, and that’s not a coincidence,” Action Network’s Matt Moore wrote via his Substack. There hasn’t been much reporting on Claxton in terms of potentially being traded to another team this summer, but most around the NBA are under the thought that no one on Brooklyn’s roster at this point is untouchable.

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“Claxton provides an athletic veteran floor runner who can switch to put next to Luka, the Nets and Lakers have done deals before, multiple times, and Claxton is likely ready to be on a contending team,” Moore continued. As Moore pointed out, there has been plenty of noise surrounding the Lakers and their offseason plans and there have been various media members connecting Claxton to Los Angeles for obvious reasons.

For example, Dan Woike of the Los Angeles Times wrote in May that the Lakers and Claxton have been linked given Los Angeles’ need for a center upgrade after trading Anthony Davis to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for Luka Doncic. While the Lakers are happy with the fact that they have a player like Doncic who is entering his prime as a superstar, the playoffs showed that Los Angeles can’t expect to win much without a solid big man.

Claxton, 26, is coming off a solid season for the Nets as he averaged 10.3 points, 7.4 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 1.4 blocks per game while shooting 56.3% from the field and 51.3% from the free-throw line. To be clear, Claxton is under contract for the next three seasons so there isn’t an incentive for Brooklyn to move him at this time unless the Lakers were willing to give something that the Nets are interested in, such as draft picks and young players.

For the moment, it seems like Los Angeles would be willing to part with Austin Reaves if they were getting a top-tier center in return, according to Woike. Time will tell if that’s how the Lakers view someone like Claxton, but the important fact to note is that many around the league see that Los Angeles needs someone at the center spot and Claxton is less than untouchable in the eyes of many.

This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: Nets’ Nic Claxton may be closer to joining the Lakers than some think