Brook Lopez is headed to L.A.
The Brooklyn Nets have acquired point guard D’Angelo Russell from the Los Angeles Lakers, along with center Timofey Mozgov.
In exchange, the Lakers receive center Brook Lopez and the #27 pick in Thursday’s NBA Draft.
This is a money-saving deal for the Lakers, plain and simple.
The team is setting themselves up to make a run at free agents Paul George and LeBron James during the 2018 offseason, assuming they don’t work out a deal for George in the next couple of days.
Reports suggest that the Lakers are offering either power forward Julius Randle or guard Jordan Clarkson, along with the #27 and #28 picks to the Pacers for George.
Lopez becomes an unrestricted free agent following the 2017-2018 NBA Season. This move gives the Lakers the chance to be as much as 38M under the cap next offseason.
Assuming that the Pacers say no to the proposed Paul George trade, the next order of business for the Lakers would seem to be to try and shed the contract of small forward Luol Deng. Potentially packaging Clarkson or Russell and/or those late first round picks, along with Deng in a similar move to this one.
The Nets are gambling that removing Russell from the limelight of L.A. will help him reach his lofty potential.
With the Nets, the former Ohio State Buckeye will get the chance to turn into a star outside of the spotlight of Los Angeles.
