With salary to trim, expiring contracts to flip and false hopes to reignite, the Los Angeles Lakers entered the NBA trade deadline with major renovation plans.
Ultimately, they left with the swap meet with nearly everything they brought with them, save for veteran guard Steve Blake, who was shipped off to the Golden State Warriors for fading prospects MarShon Brooks and Kent Bazemore.
For this dream-big franchise, moving just one piece when so many were reportedly in play felt like a disappointment. Now, word is leaking about just how close some of those other dominoes came to dropping.
According to Jake Pavorsky of LibertyBallers.com, the Lakers nearly pried guard-forward Evan Turner "and multiple second round picks" away from the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for Chris Kaman's expiring contract. ESPN.com's Ramona Shelburne had reported the two teams discussing Kaman in the final hours leading up to Thursday's deadline:
Sources told Pavorsky that Turner and Kaman were the tip of the iceberg in the framework of an even larger deal:
The deal had the potential to go far beyond Kaman and ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NBA
Article written by Zach Buckley
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