After the first five games of the season, many Lakers fans were ready to give up and throw in the towel. Truth be told, the Purple and Gold were horrible for the first few weeks of the season and genuinely looked like the worst teams in basketball.
But things have been quietly turning around for them lately. Taking advantage of a favorable schedule, L.A. has gone 6-4 in their last 10 and has moved up to 8-12 on the season.
And while reports indicated the Lakers may have been eyeing a pair of frontcourt stars in Chicago, NBA Insider Adrian Wojnarowski gave the NBA world reason to doubt such a deal will happen anytime soon.
“Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, Nikola Vucevic, I think those are all players — people in the league — teams are waiting to see: will any of them be available by the trade deadline,” Woj said. “Right now, this is a Chicago team that wants to make the playoffs, wants to get a healthy Lonzo Ball back. They are no ready to concede yet.”
The Lakers can only get DeRozan or Vucevic if the Bulls are sellers, and there’s no guarantee they will be ready to push the big red button so soon.
In light of the Lakers’ renewed interest in DeRozan, it’s hard not to look back on the summer of 2021, when the team nearly had a deal to bring him to Los Angeles.
I felt like going to the Lakers was a done deal and that we were going to figure it out. I was going to come home.The business side of things just didn’t work out. A couple of things didn’t align. It didn’t work out. It’s just part of the business, part of the game. My next option was definitely Chicago. So, looking back at it, it worked out well.
But there’s always motivation. It may be just to come home and play in front of friends and family, competing against teams you grew up watching. There are all sorts of motivations that you carry and you try to channel that energy into the game. I find that in every game, but definitely coming back to your hometown, you want to play well and you have that motivation to put on a great show.
Sadly, an L.A. tenure wasn’t in the cards for DeMar, but he has been playing well enough in Chicago, Despite their struggles early on, he has done an admirable job keeping his team competitive and carrying such a heavy offensive load without Lonzo Ball on the floor.
It looks like the Lakers may have to look elsewhere for their reinforcements this season, but there is little doubt that moves will be coming soon.
We sincerely appreciate and respect you as a reader of our site. It would help us a lot if you follow us on Google News because of the latest update.
Thanks for following us. We really appreciate your support.
