The good news is nobody needs to call the moving vans with this trade. There will be no plane flights. The players have to just walk a little farther down the hall and make sure they go into the right locker room.
The Lakers and Clippers agreed to a trade just half-an-hour before the deadline that sends two Lakers — Michael Beasley and the popular Ivica Zubac — out. Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN broke the story.
The Clippers are trading Mike Muscala to the Lakers for Michael Beasley and Ivica Zubac, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 7, 2019
The Lakers pick up a respectable pick-and-pop big who had been with Philadelphia most of the season but went to the Clippers as part of the Tobias Harris trade. Muscala is shooting 34 percent from three this season.
What grabs the headlines, however, is this opens up a Lakers roster spot, and the reason they had used all season for not bringing in Carmelo Anthony was the lack of a roster spot. Now...
Lakers will now seriously look at signing Carmelo Anthony, per source. https://t.co/7eV4ReNGlI
— Brad Turner (@BA_Turner) February 7, 2019
That said, it’s not a done deal.
As for the Carmelo-Lakers question, he’s an option they’re considering, but there are expected to be many other options on buyout market. And those recently bought out players are considered more game-ready than Melo, who has been out a while.
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) February 7, 2019
This is expected to be a robust buyout market with some relatively big names — Wes Matthews, Robin Lopez among others — but there also will be a lot of suitors for the good players. Golden State, Philadelphia, Houston and other teams are going to be actively looking to strengthen their rosters. The Lakers will have to compete, and use the pull of LeBron James, to get a quality player for the stretch run. Of course, LeBron already said he wanted the Lakers to look at Anthony. So there’s that.
The Clipper are expected to waive Beasley and add him to the buyout market (the Lakers cannot re-acquire him under the terms of the CBA).
The initial plan for the Los Angeles Clippers is to waive forward Michael Beasley, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) February 7, 2019
What the Clippers get is a young big with potential in Zubac who can be part of whatever is in the future for this team after what will be a wild summer.