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The Los Angeles Lakers have reported interest in making a trade for former NBA champion and Miami Heat wing Andrew Wiggins, but questions remain on if it’s the right move. <\/p>\n
The Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> are second in the Western Conference with a 12-4 record and finally have their star trio of LeBron James<\/a>, Luka Doncic<\/a>, and Austin Reaves<\/a> on the court together.<\/p>\n But that isn\u2019t even in Laker Land, and questions remain on whether this currently constructed team has enough to win four straight playoff rounds. Big man issues remain the biggest concern, specifically after Deandre Ayton\u2019<\/a>s recent knee injury, but that hasn\u2019t stopped trade rumors for other positions.<\/a><\/p>\n Most recently, Jake Fischer reported<\/a> that Los Angeles was interested in trading for former NBA champion and Miami Heat<\/a> wing Andrew Wiggins<\/a>. The Lakers have expressed interest<\/a> in Wiggins in the past, but as of late, they were urged not to make the move for the 2022 Finals winner with the Golden State Warriors.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhile adding Wiggins to a lineup that includes Don\u010di\u0107, Reaves, James, and Deandre Ayton is intriguing, the team should resist making such a trade,\u201d Erik Beaston wrote for Bleacher Report.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n While the Lakers still sit four games behind the conference-leading Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a>, the writer strongly urged Los Angeles not to make the move, specifically after just getting James back healthy and on the court.<\/p>\n Lakers\u2019 Wiggins Trade Idea Carries Some Concerns<\/p>\n Though Adding Wiggins would likely help the Lakers both find a scoring option and a relatively versatile wing defender, Beaston stood strong in his case as to why the trade wouldn\u2019t work out well.\u00a0<\/p>\n Along with just the starpower, specifically on offense, with James, Doncic, and Reaves, Wiggins would likely come in with a similar role, and is likely a bit of a step down from those three players. Additionally, putting a new player in the mix would completely throw off the seemingly strong team chemistry that has evolved since this offseason.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cTeam chemistry is too important for the Lakers\u2019 long-term success this season to be making changes of that magnitude,\u201d Beaston wrote. \u201cJames recently rejoined the team, which already toyed with the chemistry that Don\u010di\u0107 and Reaves had established as the one-two punch of the offense.\u201d<\/p>\n Besides that, a Wiggins trade would also likely involve sending out some of their expiring deals.<\/a> Los Angeles made a ton of moves over the summer, and changing all those plans to add someone who isn\u2019t even an All-Star could prove extremely detrimental.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe last thing they can afford is to trade some of the expiring contracts on the roster (Rui Hachimura<\/a>, Gabe Vincent<\/a>, Maxi Kleber<\/a>, Jaxson Hayes<\/a>) for Wiggins and risk disrupting chemistry or momentum,\u201d the writer added. \u201cSticking with what they have and potentially trading one of those contracts as a package to bring in a role player or two by the deadline is a better move, especially as the team undoubtedly looks for depth<\/a> later in the year.\u201d<\/p>\n Lakers might be good off Andrew Wiggins \ud83d\ude2d <\/p>\n Wiggins is averaging 16.7 points and 4.9 rebounds on 48.1% shooting, but making a trade for him would topple everything Rob Pelinka<\/a> and JJ Redick<\/a> have done to construct this roster.<\/a><\/p>\n Reaves In Line For First All-Star, Massive New Contract<\/p>\n As mentioned, adding a player like Wiggins wouldn\u2019t be a step up from the performance Reaves has shown through the first month of the season. Coming off 20 points per game last year, the 26-year-old is now averaging a career-high<\/a> 27.6 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 7.3 assists on 48.4% shooting.<\/p>\n Along with lining himself up for his first-career All-Star appearance<\/a>, more importantly, Reaves is now set to sign a new, max contract over the offseason.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAustin Reaves has already leveled up more times than a Pok\u00e9mon in his NBA<\/a> career, with this final stage looking like a max contract player,\u201d Greg Swartz wrote for Bleacher Report<\/a>. \u201cReaves owns a\u00a0$14.9 million player option<\/a> for next season, although the chances of him picking it up are about the same as the Washington Wizards<\/a> winning the 2026 title. Instead, Reaves can opt out and sign a\u00a0five-year, $241 million contract<\/a> with the Lakers or a four-year, $178.5 million deal with any other team.\u201d<\/p>\n Bobby Marks of ESPN was the first<\/a> to report the potentially massive, $241 million contract extension<\/a> the Lakers could offer Reaves next summer. While his numbers might drop a bit following James\u2019 return<\/a>, if not the Lakers, another team will likely offer the guard a maximum contract, considering what he\u2019s shown throughout his career.\u00a0<\/p>\n Reaves currently ranks 12th in scoring<\/a>, 11th in assists<\/a>, and is shooting much more efficiently than his career-best last season. At his best, Wiggins likely couldn\u2019t match these numbers, which is another reason why adding a player to take the ball out of Reaves\u2019, James or Doncic\u2019s hands likely isn\u2019t a good idea.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tEli Gregorski<\/a> is a sports journalist covering the NBA for Heavy Sports. He has years of sports writing experience covering the NBA, NFL, college football and basketball, international soccer, and Formula One. He graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder, where he was the assistant sports editor for the award-winning CU Independent student publication. More about Eli Gregorski<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Lakers\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty The Los Angeles Lakers have reported interest in making a trade for former NBA champion and Miami…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-306974","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}