NBA Free Agency<\/a> begins on June 30, but this is not an odyssey that is only just beginning.<\/p>\nAdvertisement<\/p>\n
According to a recent article by Dave McMenamin of ESPN, the Lakers asked about Onyeka Okongwu last season. McMenamin also says the Lakers have had internal conversations regarding other bigs around the league.<\/p>\n
The Lakers called the Atlanta Hawks about their 6-10, athletic big man Onyeka Okongwu last season, sources told ESPN. Other centers under contract that the Lakers have mulled internally since last season include Brooklyn\u2019s Nic Claxton and Portland\u2019s Robert Williams III, sources told ESPN.<\/p>\n
Okongwu is not a name we\u2019ve heard connected with the Lakers before, but his coming to Los Angeles would make a lot of sense. And those two teams discussing deals also would have made sense.<\/p>\n
Considering how extensively trade discussions were for Dejounte Murray, Okongwu\u2019s name also likely came up. Even if the Lakers and Hawks never agreed to a deal \u2014 thanks, D\u2019Angelo Russell \u2014 Okongwu has likely been someone they have had an eye on for some time and likely has been monitoring.<\/p>\n
He is coming off a career-best 13.4 points and 8.9 rebounds per game this past season and, at age 24, he is about to enter the prime of his career. Okongwu is also on a team-friendly deal. He\u2019ll earn $15 million next season and is signed for another three years before becoming an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2028.<\/p>\n
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Of course, it takes two to tango in trades and regardless of what talks occurred, nothing ultimately came of it.<\/p>\n
Still, it\u2019s an example of the Lakers making an effort to acquire a player they need, and that\u2019s the first step to actually getting it done.<\/p>\n
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.<\/p>\n
More from silverscreenandroll.com:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Lakers and the search for their next big man is a never-ending story. President of Basketball Operations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3776],"tags":[676,208,3874,7,670,8095,2878,130,677,300,251,6,3269,5034,2728,493,13399],"class_list":{"0":"post-136200","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-hawks","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-hawks","10":"tag-atlantahawks","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-brooklyn","13":"tag-dave-mcmenamin","14":"tag-dejounte-murray","15":"tag-espn","16":"tag-hawks","17":"tag-lakers","18":"tag-los-angeles","19":"tag-nba","20":"tag-nba-free-agency","21":"tag-next-season","22":"tag-nic-claxton","23":"tag-onyeka-okongwu","24":"tag-robert-williams-iii"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114771473762983315","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}