Lakers Trade Target Watch: Myles Turner explodes in win vs. Pelicans

Welcome to Lakers Trade Target Watch, a (possibly) recurring series where we check in on Myles Turner, Buddy Hield, and more players that Los Angeles has been — and will continue to be — connected to all year.

One of the names the Lakers were most persistently linked to in Russell Westbrook trade rumors this summer was Indiana Pacers center Myles Turner. Los Angeles was reportedly on “the one-yard line” of a deal for Turner and his teammate Buddy Hield this summer before ultimately deciding not to go through with the move, and Turner has wanted to be a Laker badly enough that he pretty transparently argued for the Lakers to trade for him in a recent ESPN podcast appearance with Woj.

Nevertheless, the Lakers have yet to trade for Turner, but he made his latest case for a deal on the court in the Pacers’ 129-122 win over the New Orleans Pelicans on Monday night, dropping a season-high 37 points to go with 12 rebounds and 3 blocks while hitting four 3-pointers. Turner doesn’t always look this good, but when he does, he really does look like the perfect complement to Anthony Davis in the frontcourt.

Now, obviously one great game is unlikely to change the Lakers’ internal calculus on how they would value a Turner (and possibly Hield) trade too much... but it’s still hard to watch Turner play like this and not think he could be a tremendous help for this Lakers team.

What do you think? Does this change your thought process on a deal at all? Do you think it should change the front office’s? Let’s discuss in the comments below.

For more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts. You can follow Harrison on Twitter at @hmfaigen.