With the news of JJ Redick being hired as the Los Angeles Lakers next head coach, the job now is to focus on the summer and improve the roster after a disappointing finish this past season. The piece to the missing puzzle might have been revealed as a name to watch out for is Atlanta Hawks star Dejounte Murray as The Athletic's Shams Charania was on ESPN's “The Pat McAfee Show” and talked about the next steps for the Lakers.
“That’s why the pressure's on the Lakers’ front office to make major changes to an extent, because this team came up short this past year and when you think about JJ Redick and the principles he wants to implement defense, point of attack defenders, versatile players,” Charania said.
Charania talks about the timeline between the Lakers and Murray
The Hawks have been an interesting team to watch since last season as the rumors kept building by the week that the expectation is the team wants to separate Murray and fellow star guard in Trae Young. Charania would remind McAfee and the viewers that Los Angeles was pursuing Murray as early as the trade deadline last season.
“One name they did pursue last season at the trade deadline that teams expect to come up again in trade conversations over the next week or so, and makes sense for the Lakers is DeJounte Murray with the Hawks,” Charania said. “That’s someone that you think about in the next week or so, not only with the number one overall pick, but they potentially have a decision to make with Trae Young, with DeJounte Murray, which player stays, which player goes, and the Lakers have maintained a level of interest in DeJounte Murray over the last several months.”
What it will take to bring Murray to Los Angeles
There is no doubt that before Redick was hired that there were questions from media personalities about how truly attractive the Lakers job is and besides LeBron James and Anthony Davis, the team has its holes. However, adding Murray will no doubt be a boost, but the concern now is what it will take from the Lakers as Kevin Pelton of ESPN says that three first round picks should do the job.
“As soon as they make the No. 17 pick in this month’s draft, the Lakers can trade that pick along with first-round picks in 2029 and 2031, which should be plenty to land Murray from the Hawks,” Pelton wrote. “If Los Angeles can use the 55th pick to draft Bronny James, helping persuade LeBron James to re-sign long term this summer or extend after exercising his player option, all the better.”
In any sense, the Lakers are putting faith in Redick to bring his creative basketball mind and hopefully uplift the team after losing in the first round of the playoffs in five games to the Denver Nuggets which resulted in the firing of Darvin Ham. They also finished with a 47-35 record this past season which put them at the seventh seed.
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