The Lakers, sitting at 23-14 following a Monday night loss to the Kings, are seen as a potential player at this year’s NBA trade deadline due to the roster imbalances that have led to most of the team’s losses this season.
While L.A.’s three-headed monster of LeBron James, Luka Dončić, and Austin Reaves are talented enough offensively to hang with anybody the defensive abilities of the trio leave much to be desired. The supporting cast hasn’t proven up to the task of compensating for those deficiencies and struggle to hit open shots to boot. Given the Lakers' status as a win-now team with James in his final seasons and Dončić in the fold it goes to figure they would hope to make a mid-season addition that could help the roster’s weak areas—if such a deal can be found for a franchise without much to offer in the form of trade assets.
On Monday, one suggestion to help fix the team’s defense came from a rather unexpected source: James’s agent, Rich Paul, the founder of Klutch Sports.
Paul recently launched a new podcast alongside former ESPN personality Max Kellerman. On Monday a new episode was released and Paul shared he would trade Reaves for Grizzlies star Jaren Jackson Jr. if he were in charge of the Lakers franchise.
“If I was the Lakers I would be targeting the Memphis Grizzlies as a trade partner for Jaren Jackson,” Paul said at the 56-minute mark of the latest episode of Game Over.
The agent was then asked by Kellerman what Los Angeles would give up to land the Defensive Player of the Year. Paul said the Lakers could offer expiring contracts in addition to the last first-round picks they can offer in 2031 or 2032. Or they could trade Reaves instead.
“This comes with a very unemotional attachment because Austin is beloved, which he should be,” Paul said of possibly sending Reaves to Memphis for Jackson Jr. “He’s an underdog. And here’s the thing: there’s a world where you can do what’s best for your team and do what’s best for Austin. Because Austin deserves to get paid. Right now. I love him as a Laker but... if you put all the money into just the backcourt, your flexibility is restricted going forward to fill out the rest of the team... That’s one aspect of it.”
Paul went on to say he believes Reaves would thrive in Memphis and the Grizzlies would pay him what he deserves. He wraps up his argument by stating the building blocks of a contender would be there with Dončić and Jackson Jr. as the cornerstones.
It’s certainly an interesting argument and theoretically addresses the Lakers’ defense problem without losing much offensively; Reaves is a talented scorer but Dončić is better in all areas. However, it’s pretty bizarre to hear the pitch coming from the agent of Reaves’s superstar teammate. Even in today’s media world where anybody and everybody is getting in front of a microphone to opine on the sports news of the day it stands out as strange. It’s hard to imagine anyone in the Lakers’ organization is pleased about LeBron James’s agent (and perhaps the most influential agent in the NBA right now) suggesting they trade his teammate even just as a thought exercise.
The enormity of such a move makes it unlikely the Lakers pull it off before this year’s deadline. But it would be a fascinating path to pursue for any number of reasons.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as LeBron James’s Agent Rich Paul Suggests Lakers Trade Austin Reaves for Grizzlies Star.
