NBA insider reports Zach LaVine among 5 players on LA Lakers' radar including $90M former player
The LA Lakers are reportedly interested in Zach LaVine, while also keeping an eye out for former Laker Kyle Kuzma as they begin their 2024-25 season with the same roster from the past couple of editions. Per league insider Anthony Irwin, the Bulls shooting guard linked with his hometown team for well over two seasons now appears to be on their radar again.
The Lakers had earlier been pegged as strong candidates to land LaVine, but his hefty contract and health were looked at as key reasons for the interest to wane. Kuzma comes in as the other name after the franchise was reported to have been keeping an eye out on Washington Wizards big Jonas Valenciunas. But Irwin's latest suggests the Purple and Gold looking to bring Kuzma back into their fold.
“In terms of the names the Lakers might be after whenever Pelinka does finally address the holes in this roster, league sources continue to point to Kyle Kuzma of Washington, Cam Johnson and Dorian Finney-Smith of Brooklyn, Walker Kessler of Utah, Bruce Brown of Toronto, and others. One name league sources say to keep an eye on is Zach LaVine, who played well in his return from surgery last year.”
The aforementioned see familiar names the team was linked to. But with LA looking to add a third-star name, Zach LaVine, and Kuzma come in as the most likely choices. The former has had a solid start to his reason with the new-look Bulls. LaVine torched the Memphis Grizzlies for 28 points in his second game of the season with 15 of his points coming in just the second quarter.
Kyle Kuzma was the lone warrior for Washington last season averaging 22.2 points, 6.6 rebounds and 4.2 assists in 70 regular season games even as the Wizards ended with the second-worst record in the East finishing 15-67. With both teams looking to rebuild, the Lakers will benefit by adding at least one of the two players to bolster the team's offense.