NBA Trade Rumors: 3 Kyrie Irving backup plans for Lakers

Zach LaVine might be the biggest trade swing the Lakers could take now

The thing about players like Terry Rozier and Bogdan Bogdanovic, while they would help LeBron James and Anthony Davis improve the team around them in Los Angeles, is that they aren’t exactly names that carry star-power. Zach LaVine, on the other hand, does have a little more caché in that regard, which makes him a fascinating potential trade candidate for the Lakers.

ESPN insider Zach Lowe reported on his podcast, “The Lowe Post”, that LA had been monitoring the Bulls now for some time in order to potentially make a play for LaVine or DeMar DeRozan. Given what the current Lakers team is lacking, though, LaVine would make exponentially more sense for the roster than DeRozan would, which isn’t a slight on DeRozan.

Not only would LeBron and Los Angeles have a potential in with LaVine given that he’s a Klutch Sports client, but he would make a ton of sense alongside the star duo for LA. His ability to create off the dribble is much-needed, as is his reliable outside shooting. Plus, having him paired with high-IQ players like James and Davis could help iron out some of the problematic performance issues we’ve seen from him in Chicago this season.

It remains to be seen if LaVine is a realistic trade target given that we don’t know what the Bulls are planning to do moving forward, starting at the deadline. With that being said, losing out on Kyrie Irving could push LA to start being more aggressive and, as such, Chicago should be one of their first calls to see if the Lakers could somehow wind up with LaVine on the roster by the end of Feb. 9.