The Los Angeles Lakers have made their interest in acquiring Dejounte Murray of the Atlanta Hawks no secret.
Yes, the team has been linked in recent days to an Alex Caruso trade with the Chicago Bulls, a blockbuster Donovan Mitchell trade with the Cleveland Cavaliers, and a reunion with two former players.
But despite all those potential moves, Murray remains their top priority.
This week, a report surfaced revealing L.A.’s most recent offer to Atlanta for Murray’s services.
“The Lakers appear to have made the most aggressive known bid to date for Murray,” Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports revealed.
“Los Angeles has been willing to include a 2029 first-round pick plus a pick swap in its attempts to land the Hawks guard, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
“Atlanta is searching for a better player return than Russell, sources said, and the Hawks seem to prefer not taking back future salary, leaving the possibility for another three-team deal at the deadline that includes Russell — after he joined the Lakers by way of last February’s Utah-Minnesota-Los Angeles triple dip. Russell holds an $18.6 million player option for next season that will factor into any team’s decision to obtain the Ohio State product.”
At the moment, there are five teams who have expressed enough interest in Russell to help facilitate this trade.
That said, there is one clear three-team trade that could solve everyone’s problems.
Per NBA insider Matt Moore, the Lakers have interest in Spencer Dinwiddie. Because he and the Brooklyn Nets aren’t seeing eye to eye at the moment, a separation would serve all parties involved well.
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As noted by NBA insider Jake Weinbach, there is a win-win-win scenario available for Los Angeles, Atlanta and Brooklyn.
“The Lakers, Hawks, and Nets could engage in a three-team deal that would send Dejounte Murray to Los Angeles, D’Angelo Russell to Brooklyn, and Spencer Dinwiddie, a 2029 first via LAL, and additional draft compensation to Atlanta,” he wrote.
By any objective measure, all the teams and players involved (except maybe Russell) would get exactly what they are looking for.
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L.A. gets a star in Murray, plus a solid role player. Dinwiddie gets a fresh start in Los Angeles. Atlanta gets draft capital that it can either turn into win-now players or save for the future. And Brooklyn dumps a disgruntled role player in favor of a young, talented point guard.
A win-win-win.
Will the Lakers, Hawks and Nets be able to get this deal done? Time will tell. Should they, though? Absolutely.
Related: Warriors, Bulls Linked To Blockbuster Win-Win NBA Trade
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
