Lakers Rumors: Kobe Skipping All-Star Game? Should LA Trade First Round Pick To Snag Goran Dragic?
With the Los Angeles Lakers now fully into tanking talent development mode, Laker fans are looking to see what team management can pull off in the coming weeks and months to right the ship. It’s not going to be an easy road back to the Finals, but there are a lot of talented players out there that the Lakers could snap up in order to get back on that road. Goran Dragic is one of those players, and he’s available, but the question remains whether the Lakers should pay the price to land the Suns point guard.
The NBA’s trade deadline is fast approaching, with teams having just under a week to go before the deadline passes. The Lakers have long been eyeing Dragic as a potential solution to their woes at the point guard position, but a new report out from Racine Journal Times columnist Gery Woelfel [h/t: Lakers Nation] hints that the Phoenix Suns might well want a pretty steep price for Dragic.
Hearing Suns want a first-rounder for Goran Dragic and, rest assured, they’ll get it. Rockets got to be tempted.
— Gery Woelfel (@GeryWoelfel) February 12, 2015
Dragic has a player option for next season that could keep him with the Suns to the tune of $7.5 million. Dragic, as Lakers Nation points out, seems unlikely to stay in Phoenix, as the Suns have apparently decided to go with Isaiah Thomas and Eric Bledsoe as their point guards going forward. Dragic has struggled to find playing time in the Suns’ crowded backcourt lineup, and rumor has it that he is anxious to strike out on his own.
Could the Lakers be a possible destination for Dragic? It’s hard to say, given that it appears that the Lakers would have to give up a first-round pick in order to land him. After what will almost certainly end up as one of the Lakers’ worst seasons on record, the franchise looks set for a protected early first round pick, and this year’s college draft class could well be rich with any number of potential stars. Trading away such a pick for a solid – but not world-changing – point guard could be a solid move were the Lakers able to land additional talent in the offseason, but it could also prove disastrous.
In other Laker news, injured star guard Kobe Bryant may well skip the upcoming All-Star Weekend, according to new reports. The Laker great is recovering from surgery on a season-ending rotator cuff injury in his right shoulder, and Bleacher Report‘s Kevin Ding says that it’s likely Kobe will be skipping this weekend’s All-Star festivities in favor of taking it easy.
[Lead image via Red Rock Fantasy Basketball.]
