Lakers Trade Rumors: Front office refused to include Brandon Ingram in DeMarcus Cousins deal

NBA Twitter is still reeling after the Sacramento Kings gave away the best player they’ve had in decades traded DeMarcus Cousins to the New Orleans Pelicans. As more information has come out about what went into the deal, the Los Angeles Lakers apparently had an opportunity to acquire the uber-talented big man, but refused to part with an important part of their rebuild: Brandon Ingram.

Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports broke the story.

Say what you will about whether the Lakers missed an oppotunity, for a young player in an up-and-down rookie campaign, this had to be a nice shot of confidence knowing how highly the front office think of him despite some of his struggles.

Refusing to move on from Ingram and, one would imagine, other pieces of their young core is also telling. Speculation has swirled around Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak’s job security basically since Magic Johnson was hired as an advisor, but this steadfast stance of sticking to the current course is a great sign of their confidence in what they’ve put together in the last few years.

Cousins is also no longer eligible for the monster designated player exception, making him an interesting candidate should the Lakers try to sign him via free agency. Just another little wrinkle in a really interesting story.

Magic said last week that he plans to meet with Jim and Mitch this week (Monday and Tuesday, specifically). You have to think the first topic they’ll cover (aside from Johnson publicly jockeying for Jim’s job) will be the Lakers’ passing on someone of Cousins’ talent.

This feels like just the beginning to an interesting few days leading up to the NBA trade deadline. Fasten your seat belts.