What to make of the latest Lakers trade rumors (or lack thereof)

It’s abundantly clear at this point what the Los Angeles Lakers have to accomplish, either in the days leading up to the trade deadline, or once it has passed and the buyout market starts to pick up. If you’ve been paying attention at all to any of the trade noise around the league, you also likely know the offer Rob Pelinka has sent to roughly (if not more than) half the NBA.

The combination of those two understandings have led to more of a steady trickle rather than full on deluge of Lakers trade rumors. This week on “The Hook,” Aaron Larsuel and I explained some of why the Lakers haven’t appeared in many of the recent trade rumor roundups.

Honestly, it’s fairly simple: There are only so many times you can write out “The Lakers have called up (insert NBA team here) and offered Talen Horton-Tucker, Kendrick Nunn and their 2027 first-round pick.”

What I find more interesting, though, has been the nature of the leaks to this point on a broader spectrum. They’ve all seemed to come from teams we know to be sellers heading into the deadline, and are outlining their lofty expectations for returns for the players everyone knows they will be sending out.

What we haven’t heard much of is how many teams seem inclined to match the high asking prices for players who will probably help, but likely won’t guarantee a championship — and definitely won’t transform any franchises.

To explain some of why this has been the case, Aaron and I offered up a couple analogies that lead to probably the most memorable story time segment in the history of stories or time.

You can listen to the full episode below, and to make sure you never miss a show, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts.

And for a short-form recap pod, check out Lakers Lowdown, in which Anthony Irwin recaps the previous day’s news and gets you ready for the day ahead in LakerLand, every weekday morning on the Silver Screen & Roll Podcast feed.