Lakers Don’t Deal For Dejounte Murray, Bruce Brown Or Anyone Else At Trade Deadline

Despite bringing back their core that made it to the Western Conference Finals this season, the Los Angeles Lakers have struggled to gain any sort of momentum this season, hovering around .500 for a majority of the year.

While the hope was that continuity would be able to vault the Lakers into championship contenders, that has not been the case, making it clear that some sort of trade needed to be made ahead of the Feb. 8 deadline.

The player the Lakers have been linked to most leading up to the deadline is Atlanta Hawks guard Dejounte Murray. Despite trading for and extending Murray, the Hawks have struggled and reportedly felt that the fit with Trae Young was not great.

The Lakers were unsurprisingly the team that expressed the most interest in Murray over the last few weeks. They were said to be looking to upgrade their backcourt with a guard that has speed and athleticism, with Murray fitting that criteria. He is also a Klutch Sports client that has a close relationship with LeBron James.

While the fit was good, finding a deal that worked for all parties was trickier. The Hawks were reportedly not interested in acquiring D’Angelo Russell, so a third team appeared to need to get involved given the Lakers’ lack of draft assets to entice Atlanta.

It appears that they were never able to get it done as Murray is staying put in Atlanta past the deadline, as is another potential Lakers target in Bruce Brown of the Toronto Raptors, per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN: