With much trade chatter surrounding the Los Angeles Lakers over the last fews days, the team on Tuesday afternoon pulled a trigger on a major deal.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical, the Lakers have moved guard D'Angelo Russell and center Timofey Mozgov to the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for center Brook Lopez and the 27th overall pick in this year's Draft.
Russell had been prominently mentioned in trade talks for the last few weeks and had even been tossed around on Monday as a possible asset to acquire a first-round lottery pick in the 2017 NBA Draft. This deal with the Nets allows the Lakers to shed the huge contract of Mozgov, who is owed $54 million over the next three years while adding a quality big man in Lopez, who is in the final year of his deal worth $22.6 million.
More importantly, it likely paves the way for the Lakers to take UCLA point guard Lonzo Ball with the second overall pick on Thursday night. There had been a growing sense that the team was leaning toward selecting the 19-year-old with the pick over the past several days following his second workout session with the team last Friday.
As for the Nets, this provides the team with a young point guard that could step in and become their leading scorer and piece to build around. Russell is a unique combo guard that has proven to possess above-average passing skills and can generate his own offense.
This could very well foreshadow a few other major moves ahead for the Lakers with rumors on Tuesday that the team is engaged in trade talks with the Indiana Pacers for All-Star forward Paul George.