NBA Trade Rumors: How close are the Los Angeles Lakers from closing the deal on a Dejounte Murray trade?

At the NBA Trade Deadline last season, the Los Angeles Lakers pulled off a huge season-saving trade that catapulted them toward making a somewhat unlikely run to the Western Conference Finals. The Lakers are hoping they can pull off something similar with less than three weeks before this year’s NBA Trade Deadline.

With a 22-22 record, ranked 9th in the Western Conference standings, the first half of the 2023-24 NBA season has been everything but smooth for the Lakers. After making a run to the conference finals last year, the hope was that the Lakers would be able to carry that momentum heading into this season. That didn’t exactly play out as the Lakers have struggled with inconsistent player for much of the season.

But the hope is that the Lakers’ front office can push the right buttons once again at the NBA Trade Deadline in an attempt to right the ship. The recent reporting surrounding the Lakers makes it seem as if the team could be on the edge of closing a deal for an impactful player that could be the answer to their season-long questions.

According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, the Lakers and Atlanta Hawks discussed a deal a couple of weeks ago centered around Murray. The one holdup between a deal getting done revolved around finding a third team to take on D’Angelo Russell. Shams noted that he expects the two sides to circle back. Seemingly, if the Lakers and Hawks could find a third team to take on Russell, this is a deal that very much has legs.

If the Lakers were to pull off this kind of deal for Murray, and that largely has to depend on what the market ends up being for the one-time All-Star, it would be a huge win for a team that more often than not this season has looked dead in the water.

Adding Murray to LeBron James and Anthony Davis, with the supporting cast that they already have in place, would completely change the trajectory of this team.

Considering the Lakers are only 3.5 games back of the fifth seed in the West, it’s not out of the realm of possibility to see the Lakers make a real run in the second half of the season. Even more so if they’re able to finalize a deal for a player as talented as Murray is.

The next few weeks will prove to be increasingly important to not only how the rest of this season plays out for the Lakers, but also for what the next few years will look like for the franchise. Adding Murray at the trade deadline would completely change the outlook for this team. The question is, can they close the deal?