After Dejounte Murray Failed Trade, the 40M Hawks star the Lakers Are Targeting

The Los Angeles Lakers didn't have a good trade deadline as they stood pat, trusting the team they built in the offseason as the biggest trade option was for Dejounte Murray of the Atlanta Hawks but it failed to happen.

Still, the Lakers have a target from that team, Trae Young, and Pelinka will be pursuing him in the next offseason. According to Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports, Atlanta used the deadline to gauge league interest in Murray and what potential trade packages could look like in the offseason with the Lakers potentially circling back:

“That is also the calculus in Atlanta, sources said, where the Hawks have messaged since the beginning of this trade period that the front office was not absolutely resigned to trading guard Dejounte Murray. The 27-year-old former All-Star has yet to begin the four-year, $114 million extension he signed this past offseason, and the Hawks will enter June and July with a very clear understanding of several teams’ valuations of Murray.

League personnel expect Los Angeles, of course, to re-engage Atlanta over Murray, and New Orleans will have the opportunity to resume conversations the Pelicans held with the Hawks this week.”

The Lakers' pursuit of Murray could potentially help them to land Young in the summer

More interesting, though, is that Trae Young could become available if the team underwhelms down the stretch of the 2023-24 season and he is someone the Lakers have long had interest in: “The Lakers certainly won’t limit their thinking to Murray. There are several front offices that listened to Atlanta’s pre-deadline chatter and came away from conversations with the Hawks of the belief Trae Young could become available for trade this summer — depending on Atlanta’s outcome for the remainder of this campaign.” Young currently is making 40 million per year.