{"id":360165,"date":"2025-12-20T09:44:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T09:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/360165\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T09:44:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T09:44:10","slug":"evaluators-split-on-keon-ellis-value","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/360165\/","title":{"rendered":"Evaluators Split On Keon Ellis’ Value"},"content":{"rendered":"

Within a look at potential Lakers trade targets, Dan Woike of The Athletic<\/a> reports that league sources believe the current asking price for Kings guard Keon Ellis<\/a> is a protected first-round pick.<\/p>\n

\"\"Ellis, who will turn 26 next month, has a reputation as a solid defender, is a career 41.8% three-point shooter, and is earning just $2.3MM in 2025\/26, making him an appealing option for teams not well positioned from a cap perspective to acquire a player on a larger contract.<\/p>\n

However, there\u2019s not a consensus on Ellis\u2019 value, according to Woike.<\/p>\n

One league source who spoke to The Athletic referred to the fourth-year guard as \u201cmaybe the most divisive player in the league,\u201d pointing out that rival scouts are high on him but neither Mike Brown nor Doug Christie has been comfortable leaning on him consistently in Sacramento. After starting 28 games and averaging 24.4 minutes per game last season, Ellis has made two starts and averaged 17.6 MPG in 2025\/26.<\/p>\n

As Woike explains, some skeptics believe Ellis\u2019 defensive skill set is more suited to generating turnovers than to actually slowing down opposing offensive offensive players, while others have reservations about his size and ability to hold his own against bigger guards.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also worth noting that Ellis will reach unrestricted free agency in July if he doesn\u2019t sign an extension before then (he\u2019ll become eligible<\/a> on February 9), so a team acquiring him would risk losing him for nothing during the 2026 offseason.<\/p>\n

Still, Woike believes Ellis is one of the possibilities being considered by the Lakers, who could badly use another defensive-minded player in their rotation. Pelicans forward Herbert Jones<\/a>, Heat forward Andrew Wiggins<\/a>, Clippers forward Derrick Jones Jr.<\/a>, Nets guard Terance Mann<\/a>, Hornets wing Josh Green<\/a>, and Bulls guard Ayo Dosunmu<\/a> are among the other potential targets Woike mentions, though he cautions that not all of them will be available, especially for a price the Lakers would be comfortable meeting.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles only has one tradable first-round pick (in either 2031 or 2032) and one movable second-rounder (2032). The team could also offer a handful of first-round pick swaps. The trade value of Dalton Knecht<\/a>, a 2024 first-rounder, has slipped since last season, as he has fallen out of JJ Redick\u2018s regular rotation this fall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Within a look at potential Lakers trade targets, Dan Woike of The Athletic reports that league sources believe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[20446,64,63,8645,726,5850,196482,196483,196484,30415,85,32213],"class_list":{"0":"post-360165","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-andrew-wiggins","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-ayo-dosunmu","12":"tag-basketball","13":"tag-dalton-knecht","14":"tag-derrick-jones","15":"tag-herbert-jones","16":"tag-josh-green","17":"tag-keon-ellis","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-terance-mann"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360165","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=360165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}