Trey Murphy III Surfaces as Lakers Trade Target as Los Angeles Plans Aggressive Offseason
The Lakers are about to be aggressive. Trey Murphy III is the kind of player they are chasing.
Among the names floating around as the Lakers map out a busy offseason, the New Orleans Pelicans wing has surfaced as a target Los Angeles would love to bring in alongside Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. Murphy is a 6-foot-9 sharpshooter who would fit the Lakers like a missing puzzle piece.
Here is why this rumor has real legs.
The Lakers need shooting. They need a wing defender. They need a young player who can grow with Luka. Trey Murphy is literally all three of those things in one player. He averaged career numbers last year, shoots 38-plus percent from three, and is just entering his prime.
The Pelicans are in their own moment of uncertainty. New Orleans hasn’t figured out whether to keep building or break it up. Murphy is one of their few movable assets that would actually return real value, which makes him attractive in trade conversations even if it would hurt the Pelicans long term.
For the Lakers, the pitch is straightforward. Bring in a 25-year-old wing who knocks down catch-and-shoot threes, defends the perimeter, and fits with Luka in lineup configurations that the team can’t currently run. That is an offseason home run if Rob Pelinka can land it.
The Lakers are also looking at other names. Utah Jazz center Walker Kessler comes up if extension talks between Kessler and Utah stall. Herb Jones is another Pelicans wing the Lakers like. Even Giannis Antetokounmpo is in the long-shot conversation, though the math on a Giannis deal is much harder.
Austin Reaves is also a wild card. He is expected to decline his 2026-27 player option and become an unrestricted free agent in a matter of weeks. The Lakers want to retain him, and Luka reportedly does too. But the salary needed to keep Reaves is going to limit how aggressive Los Angeles can be elsewhere.
That is the offseason puzzle. The Lakers need to spend money on Reaves, find a starting center, add shooting, and get more athletic on the wing. There isn’t enough cap room to do all of it without making trades.
Murphy is the kind of trade target that solves multiple problems with one move. He brings shooting and wing defense in the same package. That is why his name keeps surfacing.
The NBA Draft is two weeks away. The offseason fireworks start there. If the Lakers really are planning to chase players like Trey Murphy III, the next month is going to be very loud in Los Angeles.
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.
