The NBA’s trade deadline is less than a month away, and pretty soon teams around the league will start to get serious about making deals.
The Los Angeles Lakers have been actively hitting the phones, looking for a trade that would make them championship contenders again. However, they haven’t found anything palatable yet.
But Howard Beck of Sports Illustrated reported that L.A. has talked to the Detroit Pistons about not only acquiring sharpshooter Bojan Bogdanovic but also center Nerlens Noel.
Via Sports Illustrated (h/t Lakers Daily):
“I’ve heard the Lakers and Pistons have discussed a deal that would include both Bogdanović and Nerlens Noel. Since the Pistons are demanding draft assets in any deal for Bogdanović, it’s sort of a given that the Lakers would have to surrender a first-round pick to make a deal. Maybe they make a second deal to fortify the rotation further. Will they be willing to trade both picks that are currently trade-eligible? The sense around the league is they won’t. But we’ll see.”
Bogdanovic and Noel would be an interesting package. The 6-foot-7 veteran forward is having a career season, averaging 21.2 points per game while shooting 41.5 percent from 3-point range on 5.9 attempts per game.
He could be a major answer to the Lakers’ 3-point shooting woes. They rank 26th in 3-point shooting percentage, and when they lost to the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday, the Mavs loaded up the paint whenever LeBron James had the ball, as they knew the Lakers wouldn’t be able to hit from the outside.
Noel is only averaging 11.8 minutes a game this season, but he could give L.A. a shot-blocking center in limited minutes. He is putting up 8.6 rebounds and 2.3 blocked shots a game per 36 minutes.
