{"id":70031,"date":"2025-06-01T12:37:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T12:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/70031\/"},"modified":"2025-06-01T12:37:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T12:37:09","slug":"trade-idea-gives-the-lakers-their-dream-two-way-wing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/70031\/","title":{"rendered":"Trade idea gives the Lakers their dream two-way wing"},"content":{"rendered":"

In addition to a starting-level center, the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> need one or two athletic wings in order to be able to seriously contend for the NBA championship next season. They have limited trade assets and very limited salary cap flexibility, and they will therefore need to be creative with how they look to improve their roster this offseason.<\/p>\n

The New Orleans Pelicans<\/a>, who finished with an awful 21-61 record this season, will reportedly make everyone on their roster available via trade this offseason, per Kevin O’Connor<\/a>. One writer suggested the Lakers take advantage<\/a> of this situation by targeting four players in particular, and another writer \u2014 Jed Katz of Sports Illustrated \u2014 suggested a mock trade that would give the Lakers two-way wing Trey Murphy III.<\/p>\n

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In this trade idea, they would give up forward Rui Hachimura, rookie sharpshooter Dalton Knecht, their 2031 first-round draft pick and their No. 55 pick this year for Murphy and a second-round pick in 2030.<\/p>\n

Via Sports Illustrated<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“Murphy is coming off a season averaging 21.2 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 3.5 assists,” Katz wrote. “He was a major scorer for the Pelicans and can shoot the three at a high level with a career percentage of 38.3%.<\/p>\n

“… The trade sends Murphy to Los Angeles as a viable third option behind [LeBron] James and [Luka] Doncic. He brings great defense with his frame and can plug into any role.”<\/p>\n

Murphy will turn 25 years of age on June 18, so he could stick around with the Purple and Gold alongside the 26-year-old Doncic for years to come. At 6-foot-8, he has a wingspan of seven feet, and he could add lots of length to L.A.’s frontline.<\/p>\n

He can play both forward spots, and he’s a high-volume 3-point shooter who attempted 8.3 shots a game from that distance this season. He’s also fairly athletic and a good finisher around the rim, as evidenced by his 73 dunks this season.<\/p>\n

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The downside of this trade idea is that it would leave Los Angeles with only the expiring contracts of big man Maxi Kleber and guard Gabe Vincent to go after a legitimate starting center via trade. That is, unless the team is willing to part with rising star guard Austin Reaves, whom some feel is on his way out, one way or another.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Trade idea gives the Lakers their dream two-way wing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In addition to a starting-level center, the Los Angeles Lakers need one or two athletic wings in order…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3790],"tags":[1013,7,1250,370,16534,3115,4034,1698,300,4044,516,251,150,4033,4043,508,3000,12178,6,470,1012],"class_list":{"0":"post-70031","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-lakers","8":"tag-austin-reaves","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-dalton-knecht","11":"tag-gabe-vincent","12":"tag-jed-katz","13":"tag-kevin-oconnor-2","14":"tag-la","15":"tag-la-lakers","16":"tag-lakers","17":"tag-lalakers","18":"tag-lebron","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","21":"tag-losangeles","22":"tag-losangeleslakers","23":"tag-luka","24":"tag-maxi-kleber","25":"tag-murphy","26":"tag-nba","27":"tag-new-orleans-pelicans","28":"tag-rui-hachimura"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114608147264962638","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70031","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=70031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}