Lakers tried ‘Hail Mary attempt’ to get Andre Iguodala, but he’s reportedly heading to Heat

At long last, the Andre Iguodala trade saga is over, and it’s not ending with him in a Lakers uniform.

According to a report by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the Miami Heat have agreed to a deal with the Memphis Grizzlies that will land them Iguodala, who they are immediately signing to a two-year contract extension:

Of course, that means the Lakers lost the bidding war, but fans can rest easy knowing that it’s not because they didn’t make an offer. In fact, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, Los Angeles put their best foot forward for Iguodala, but it apparently wasn’t enough in the end:

The LA Clippers and Houston Rockets also had also previously expressed interest in the former Finals MVP.

As disappointing a result as this may be for the Lakers, it was always the likely one. From the very beginning, the Grizzlies made it clear that they had no intention of buying out Iguodala, which was the clearest path for the Lakers to land him.

The Lakers could have theoretically packaged Danny Green and Kyle Kuzma to match Iguodala’s expiring $17.1 million salary — Haynes doesn’t make it clear what they actually offered, so it’s possible — but it’s worth questioning if Iguodala, at 36 years old, is worth Green and Kuzma. As crucial as Iguodala was to Golden State’s title runs, he hasn’t played a meaningful game since June. Additionally, Green and Kuzma have been too valuable to the Lakers for them to sacrifice both of them for a player that will likely play less than 25 minutes per game in Iguodala.

Would it have been nice to have a bigger wing defender to back up LeBron James? Absolutely, but not at the expense of the only other wing defender they have. Ultimately, this could be a blessing in disguise for the Lakers.

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