Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick said he expects forward Rui Hachimura to return to the starting lineup after he comes back from a left ankle sprain despite rookie Dalton Knecht’s ongoing hot streak.
The Los Angeles Lakers and Sacramento Kings could pull off a shocking trade this Season.
DeRozan is producing for Sacramento. He’s averaging 22.9 points per game and looks like everything the Kings need him to be.
Still, Sacramento is just 8-7 in a crowded Western Conference. The season is young, but it’s not difficult to imagine the Kings struggling to avoid the Play-In down the line.
If at some point this season the Kings decide that they’re still not true contenders, they might want to punt on the DeRozan experiment and get any or all of the following assets in return for DeRozan in a trade: young talent, draft capital, and cap space.
The Lakers could provide the Kings with all three of those things by sending Sacramento a package of D’Angelo Russell’s expiring contract, a draft pick, and 21-year-old shooting guard Max Christie in exchange for DeRozan.
The Kings would try to talk the Lakers into making the draft pick a first-rounder, but Los Angeles would try to get the deal done with a second-rounder, a key detail that would swing the pendulum of who wins the trade on paper.
Sacramento might not want to give up on the DeRozan era before it has seen a full season. Still, they might be tempted by the cap space this trade would provide this summer, especially since they’ve signed up to pay DeRozan over $25 million in 2026-27 when DeRozan will be 37.
