The Los Angeles Lakers (21-21) are on a two-game winning streak, but as presently constructed, not many are willing to bet on the Purple and Gold making a deep postseason run this year. Most sportsbooks in Las Vegas have the Lakers ninth in the title odds (+2500), behind younger and unproven teams such as Oklahoma City Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves.
However, as the NBA trade deadline has proved in recent years, a few transactions could shift the title odds in a jiffy. Case in point: The Phoenix Suns’ odds jumped from +1800 to +450 overnight when they traded for Kevin Durant at last year’s deadline.
While there isn’t a player of Durant’s caliber on this year’s market, the Lakers have been linked to All-Star guards Zach LaVine and Dejounte Murray, and even quality rotational players such as Tyus Jones, Collin Sexton, Clint Capela and Bogdan Bogdanovic.
LeBron James, however, is tired of hearing about “what’s out there” and would rather focus internally on his mini-streaking Lakers. James essentially lashed out at the media when asked about the trade talk following the Lakers’ 127-110 win over the Mavs on Wednesday.
“I don’t play fantasy basketball,” James said. “What I do is focus on the guys that’s here and in this uniform and show up to work every day. It’s too disrespectful to be thinking about what we need or what we don’t have. I don’t do that to my teammates.
“We’ve been putting in the work and that’s what we got to continue to do,” James continued. “We like the way we’ve been playing the last couple of games.”
The Lakers are eligible to trade all their offseason signees — including D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura — to make a splash ahead of the Feb. 8 trade deadline. GM Rob Pelinka has only one tradable first-round pick to offer — either 2029 or 2030.
