Lakers Draft Rumors: Lakers reportedly tried to trade down; were rebuffed by Phoenix, Philadelphia

The Los Angeles Lakers are mere days away from the 2017 NBA Draft and find themselves in a pretty nice spot. They have the Indiana Pacers over a barrel in regards to Paul George and essentially have the number one overall pick, as the Philadelphia 76ers have all but officially committed to drafting Markelle Fultz.

Whoever they might draft Thursday night remains something of a mystery, but stories are starting to come out about what they tried to do with that pick and it shows that Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka are trying to show some ingenuity.

Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports went on The Dan Patrick Show Monday morning and provided some insight as to where the Lakers’ heads currently are, and, just as interestingly, what they have been trying since they won the lottery and moved into the number two spot.

Here’s what he had to say about the Lakers trying to have their cake and eat it too.

“I think a little bit of what they’re doing is... they’re trying to get teams behind them to move up, if they like (Josh) Jackson and they can still trade down and get (Lonzo) Ball, which I think they tried with Philly, they tried with Phoenix, and neither had interest.”

Look for plenty more stories like this one as the week goes on, but again, the larger point here is how the new front office is trying to play the game of leverage. Rather than allowing everyone to simply believe they’re taking Ball second and resting on their laurels, they’re doing all they can to drum up interest and grab an extra asset here and there whenever possible.

Issue is: It takes two to make a trade, and no teams are going to go out of their way to give the Lakers any assistance.

For the full video, watch below.