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The NBA trade deadline is coming up fast, and before it hits, there are going to be a deluge of Lakers trade rumors coming our way, whether the team makes a move or not.
We’re already tracking every player the Lakers are connected to here, but what about who the Lakers might trade, or what types of players they’ll be targeting? This page will be your resource for all that and more, but here are the main things you need to know as the deadline approaches.
When is the NBA trade deadline?
The NBA trade deadline is on Thursday, March 25 at 12:00 p.m. PT (3:00 p.m. Eastern).
Who are the Lakers allowed to trade?
The Lakers could — in theory — trade anyone on their roster, but there are stipulations. LeBron James and Anthony Davis are obviously untouchable. Markieff Morris and Jared Dudley also have de-facto no-trade clauses because they re-signed on one year deals with Bird rights, so they have to approve any deal they’d be included in.
Additionally, while this is not a CBA rule, it feels extremely unlikely that the Lakers would trade any of their multitude of Klutch Sports clients — James, Davis, Montrezl Harrell, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope or Talen Horton-Tucker — anywhere they didn’t want to go.
What are the salary-matching rules for the Lakers in a trade?
The Lakers are hard-capped because they signed Wesley Matthews to the $3.6 million bi-annual exception, so their payroll cannot exceed $138,928,000 under any circumstances (for more on this, check out Eric Pincus’ invaluable Basketball Insiders salary tracker).
The Lakers are only about $1.6 million shy of the hard cap currently, and so any deals they make can’t see their incoming salary exceed their outgoing salary by more than that amount. They also only have 13 players on their roster right now, so they have to leave enough room to sign at least one more if it’s not an uneven trade that sees them take on an extra player.
What draft picks are the Lakers allowed to trade?
As of right now, the only first-round pick the Lakers can trade is their 2027 first-rounder because of how many picks they sent out in the Anthony Davis trade. That is far enough out that it might have some value because it will (likely) be from a team that is post-LeBron, but the Lakers also may not want to trade it for that reason (it could be important if the team falls off after this current era).
Real GM has a list of all their future picks already going out.
Who will the Lakers trade for?
That one we don’t know, sorry, but hopefully all our stories below can help you in figuring it out!
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