Lou Williams trade: Wizards offering first-round pick to Lakers, guard responds to chatter
The Washington Wizards (34-21) are reportedly offering their 2017 first-round draft pick to the Los Angeles Lakers (19-39) for Lou Williams. The veteran guard, averaging a career-high tally of 18.6 points and 3.2 assists, leads the Lakers in scoring despite clocking the seventh most minutes (24.2 per game) on the roster.
Williams' scorching season has reportedly kindled the interest of the Wizards, the Cleveland Cavaliers and several other teams that are looking to bolster their bench scoring. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical, Washington is trying to pull off a trade for either Williams and/or Brooklyn Nets forward Bojan Bogdanovic ahead of Thursday's NBA Trade Deadline.
“(The Wizards) feel like if there’s a wing player that they can get out on the trade market -- Lou Williams with the Lakers, they have interest in, Bojan Bogdanovic with the Nets. Washington has shown an inclination to give up a future draft pick, a first-round pick, potentially even in this draft, to get a veteran who may even turn out to be a rental for them,” Wojnarowski said during his NBA Trade Deadline preview, per CBS Sports.
Lou Williams trade: Would Lakers accept late first-round pick?
As of this writing, the third-seeded Wizards are projected to land the No. 23 pick at the 2017 NBA Draft. In what's been viewed as the deepest draft in several years, the Lakers could potentially find a starting-calibre player with a late pick. Since Los Angeles could potentially surrender their top-3 protected pick to the Philadelphia 76ers, a late draft pick could prove to be a productive snag for Luke Walton & Co.
On Sunday, Williams took to Instagram to address the trade rumours (see below). Earlier this week, the veteran guard told reporters that he wasn't paying attention to the trade chatter. "(I) Just go out and hoop. Let the powers that be deal with it. I just play man. I'm a little old school in my approach. I play for the team that I have the jersey on for. I don't really deal with hypotheticals. If something happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. I'm going to compete for the Lakers as of now."
In recent years, most of the Lakers trade chatter hasn't amounted to anything. However, general manager Mitch Kupchak is admittedly more open to wheeling-and-dealing this year. Williams is one of the four veteran players, besides Timofey Mozgov, Luol Deng and Nick Young, that the Lakers have reportedly made available head of Thursday's NBA Trad Deadline. Would the Wizards successfully pull off a Lou Williams trade? Stay tuned for the latest news and updates surrounding the NBA Trade Deadline.
