Sacramento Kings' DeMarcus Cousins (Photo : Reuters)
The Los Angeles Lakers are aggressively pursuing a trade with the Sacramento Kings for All-Star center DeMarcus Cousins. According to ESPN NBA insider Marc Stein, the Lakers have already found a conduit team in the presence of the Orlando Magic to make this three-way deal work.
In an attempt to land the franchise's next dominant big man, the Lakers are reportedly preparing a package that could involve last year's no.7 pick Julius Randle, this year's no.2 pick overall pick and additional assets. It's still unknown which of these Lakers assets are going to the Sacramento and which are bound to Orlando, but the name of Magic center Nikola Vucevic are being thrown into the potential blockbuster deal.
"Sources told ESPN's Marc Stein the Lakers, Kings and Magic have had exploratory talks on a three-way Cousins trade that would send the center to L.A. Magic center Nikola Vucevic could be included in the trade, but what the Lakers would contribute is not yet know. It's assumed any Lakers package for a player like Cousins would have to involve Julius Randle and/or the No. 2 overall pick in Thursday's draft," via Sporting News.
The Lakers front-office is expected to add more assets into their package to soften the stance of the Kings on not trading their franchise big man. Kings top executive Vlade Divac stressed that there's no way he would trade the 25-year old Cousins, who averaged 24.1 points, 12.7 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game and made it to his first All-Star and All-NBA team selection.
However, Bleacher Report feature writer Timothy Rapp believed that the prospect of having Jahlil Okafor or perhaps Kriztap Porzingis alongside another budding big man in Vucevic, who averaged 19.3 points and 10.9 rebounds last season, might be too hard for the Kings to ignore. Randle, on the other hand, might end up with the Magic to soup up its frontline in the eventuality of Vucevic's departure.
For visual aid, the NBA trade machine results appear to be a solid framework of a potential deal with Vucevic, Jordan Hill (second-year option picked up) going to Kings, Carl Landry, Julius Randle heading to Magic and Cousins marching to the Lakers.
