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Scotto: The Lakers have been in the news about Dejounte Murray and trade talks surrounding him with D’Angelo Russell, Jalen Hood-Schifino, and a 2029 first-round pick. The Hawks are looking, ideally, to clear some salary off the books looking ahead. They don’t want to take back salary, ideally, which is why there would need to be a third team for that type of trade structure to happen with D’Angelo, and his fit with Trae Young wouldn’t be an ideal fit.

As I’ve been surveying the league, I’m trying to brainstorm who would be a good third team that could make sense to take on D’Angelo’s contract. We’ve seen in the news recently that Charlotte is a team that’s willing to take on future contracts for draft picks, but he really wouldn’t fit well there with LaMelo Ball.

I don’t know where they (Charlotte) would be getting a pick from because the Lakers would have to give up their 2029 pick and Hood-Schifino, at least, who they’re kind of marketing as a second first-round pick to fit that equation from Atlanta even though the Hawks took Kobe Bufkin ahead of him.

Some people wonder if the Brooklyn Nets would be willing to take Russell back with Spencer Dinwiddie being involved in a trade to either the Hawks or the Lakers. He’s a proven point guard on an expiring contract. But I’m not sure of Brooklyn’s appetite for Russell to do that.

This leads me to a team that maybe could make sense, the Washington Wizards as the third team. I say this because there have been reports about the Lakers having interest in Tyus Jones. There’s a willingness from Washington to use trade exceptions and use their roster to take on contracts for future draft picks. The question is, where would that pick come from? Is it from Atlanta, the Lakers, or somewhere else if they had to even add a fourth team?

Buha: Right now, you’re highlighting the hurdle, I think, with this trade right now with the Lakers needing to find a third team because that’s how it usually goes. If you’re Atlanta, they don’t want to take back D’Angelo, so you need to find a third team and figure out what you can add to sweeten it to get them involved and then send D’Angelo somewhere else.

You mentioned some of the names I heard out there. Brooklyn, Charlotte, Washington. Detroit and San Antonio also could get involved. It has to be a team willing to take on some bad money, likely a lottery team, that’ll look to recoup assets from the Lakers in the form of a second-round pick or two or a future pick swap. They don’t have another first to trade because it would go to Atlanta in the potential framework of this deal. Right now, this is what the Lakers are trying to figure out. Who can be that third team, what do they have to add to the deal, and are they comfortable with that?

Do they throw in Max Christie, who’s a young 3-and-D prospect they’re high on? He’s not even 21 years old yet, and he’s already played rotation minutes for them last season and this season.

From my understanding, Dejounte Murray is their priority right now. To me, he’d be the most likely trade outcome right now if I was handicapping the odds. I think they’re the favorites to land him. Again, the big hurdle right now is finding that third team.

The longer this process drags out, you risk if another player or two gets moved, and it becomes a game of musical chairs where now Terry Rozier is off the board, and the more movement that happens, you don’t want to be the team that’s left without an upgrade. Maybe that drives up the Dejounte price, and maybe Philadelphia or another suitor gets involved that has assets and can outbid the Lakers.

I think Washington is an interesting team, as you said. I think Brooklyn is another team. Can the Lakers potentially expand that deal and try to get Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith, or Royce O’Neale?

Scotto: With Philadelphia, I don’t think Murray and Tyrese Maxey are an ideal fit. I’ve touched on the Knicks as another team that was in the hunt for Murray. That has cooled off. New York currently feels the asking price for Murray is a bit too high right now. It’s one thing for a first-round pick, the expiring contract of Evan Fournier and Quentin Grimes. That package has been kicked around. But that extra first-round pick Atlanta is looking for hasn’t been something that New York has an appetite to move at this point.

Jovan, you touched on the Lakers having Dejounte as their top trade target. I’d say he’s certainly the biggest name they’re looking at, too, and I’d argue on a bigger scale, when you look across the league, he may be the biggest name left on the board.

There was talk about whether Lauri Markkanen would go somewhere? I think that was more wishful thinking from rival executives. He’s likely going to do a renegotiation-and-extension, and I know Bobby Marks agreed with me on that when we did a HoopsHype podcast.

Regarding Donovan Mitchell, Cleveland keeps telling teams he’s not for sale. You go down the list of stars around the league, and there aren’t a lot on the market.

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Scotto: There are other players the Lakers are looking at that can round out the roster. When it comes to Tyus Jones, that’s why I brought up the Wizards (in a potential three-team trade). They (Lakers) are looking for a point guard, and Jones is a player they’re looking at on an expiring contract and a player who has a great assist-to-turnover ratio.

Buha: The level that D’Angelo Russell has played at has made them (Lakers) rethink things a little bit as far as the caliber of player they’d be willing to give him up for. On paper, that Gabe Vincent contract would be one they’d love to move, but with two years left on that deal and him still recovering from knee surgery and an unclear timetable, I don’t know how a team can take that contract on without some concern about that money.

The other guy they could move is Rui Hachimura. But then they’d be creating a different problem potentially in your frontcourt where you’d be losing your third-best frontcourt scorer behind LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

D’Angelo, because of his player option, they’re in a situation where if he’s opting in, that’s basically because he has no market and his play has worsened over the season, or he doesn’t have a lot of interest. If he continues to play the way he has and he opts out, and there’s competition for his services, you’d have to give him a pay raise. From a cap sheet management standpoint, trading Russell makes more sense.

Scotto: Gabe Vincent is definitely viewed as a negative asset right now around the league because he’s been hurt, and he hasn’t been able to show if he can fit with the Lakers or not. There’s also always the stigma that Miami Heat role players are not as good elsewhere, with the exception of Max Strus and the way he’s played for Cleveland.

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Scotto: You touched on Hachimura. Earlier in the year, there was some talk of whether Russell and Hachimura to Chicago in a package for Zach LaVine made sense. That seems to have all but gone out the window at this point.

Buha: I think it’s on life support. I think going back to my initial reporting on this in mid-November, I reported the Lakers had more interest in a potential DeMar DeRozan and Alex Caruso package because of their contract situation with DeMar on an expiring deal and Caruso having a very team-friendly contract. Alex is the one that kind of got away for the Lakers.

If Chicago got really desperate and lowered the price on LaVine and the Dejounte move fell through for whatever reason, perhaps the Lakers would revisit those talks, but I think for now given Zach’s injury status, them pivoting more towards Dejounte or a smaller move, I think the Zach situation is pretty close to dead.

Scotto: You touched on DeRozan and Caruso, and in something like that Chicago would certainly want Austin Reaves. Jeanie Buss loves Reaves. He’s been a good fit for them overall. He’s not a guy they’re easily parting with — if at all — unless there’s a true star that maybe they can get. Then, maybe it’s a different conversation.

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Scotto: For Malcolm Brogdon, a lot of executives around the league think it would take at least a first-round pick to get him from Portland. I spoke with Brogdon recently and wrote about it on HoopsHype. He mentioned enjoying his role on the one hand being valued for his leadership, but it’s definitely been a challenge with the young guys because their emphasis is on the development of Scoot Henderson, Shaedon Sharpe, and Anfernee Simons.

Buha: I look at Bruce Brown as someone the Lakers have had interest in dating back to last summer. There was a period there where the Lakers thought they were going to get Brown with their non-taxpayer mid-level exception.

It would be similar to the Dejounte situation. Would the Raptors want to take on Russell’s contract? Likely not, so that puts them in the same position where they’d have to find a third team.

I think the more realistic one would be Rui Hachimura for Brown. Does Toronto want to take on Rui, or do you have to reroute him in a three-team deal and are there additional assets you have to give up?

In terms of names, after Dejounte Murray, Bruce Brown is probably second in terms of the guys the Lakers are going after.

There’s going to be a lot of competition for Dorian Finney-Smith. I saw the report that the Nets want two first-round picks for him. That’s a lot. They don’t have two first-round picks to trade, but you can throw in Hood-Schifino who’s halfway through his rookie season. You can also throw in a pick swap to get to that price point. Are you doing that for Finney-Smith? I don’t think so, at least from the Lakers’ perspective.

Right now, there are a lot more buyers than sellers. For guys like Caruso and Finney-Smith, those guys can command two firsts.

Scotto: You touched on Bruce Brown being second behind Dejounte Murray as far as the Lakers’ trade target pecking order. I went on SportsNet in Toronto recently, and they asked me about Brown. Certainly, the Knicks because he’s Tom Thibodeau’s ideal type of player. By the way, you talked about the Lakers’ interest in Brown. The Knicks had Brown as their No. 1 free agent target ahead of Max Strus and other players. The other team I heard was the Dallas Mavericks. They also had considered going after him in free agency with the money they had available before they got Grant Williams. They’ve looked at upgrading the three and four positions while turning down requests for Dereck Lively.

Buha: If you keep D’Angelo past the deadline, you are risking him opting in because he doesn’t have a market, which isn’t a good sign. Or, he opts out and you have to pay him a lot more money or lose him for nothing. Russell’s contract was essentially signed to be traded.

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Scotto: LeBron’s future with the Lakers was called into question by Brian Windhorst. He said he could see LeBron playing next year, but he didn’t know if it would be for the Lakers. That could’ve been just a thought, but it drives a conversation of whether LeBron would come back and play next year. I think so. He’s still playing at a high level and hasn’t shown signs of slowing down. The second part is whether it would be for the Lakers. I know there’s been talk of LeBron joining Bronny James when he comes to the NBA. There are a lot of hypotheticals we’re talking about, including whether Bronny would go to the NBA Draft next year, who would take him, and how would that affect LeBron’s decision. So, with all that said, do you see LeBron playing next year and for the Lakers?

Buha: Yes and I think so. He’s got a $51 million player option for next season. I know he’s a billionaire and has an incredible asset portfolio, but that’s still $51 million. Potentially, Bronny ends up on a team that has cap space and they can work some things around to sign LeBron, but in pretty much any scenario that he’d join Bronny on a different team, that’s going to require him taking a substantial pay cut. Maybe he wants to play with him that badly that it’s not about the money and it’s about the experience and helping shepherd his son into his NBA career.

When Bronny committed to USC and LeBron was asked about it, he kind of softened his stance on whether he wants to play on the same team as Bronny. He talked about how great it would be to share the floor with him, but he also had a quote about it being his dream, but he didn’t know if it was his (Bronny’s) dream. He said as his father, I have to respect what his dreams are.

We’ve always heard the fantasy of LeBron and Bronny playing together from LeBron’s side. We haven’t heard much of it from Bronny’s side. That’s not to say Bronny doesn’t want it, but I do think there’s an aspect of whether Bronny wants this.

Does LeBron want to be on the same floor as him with him as a Laker and Bronny as a player on another team? Or, is it that they have to be on the same team? We don’t know the answer to that.

To me, LeBron has so much left in the tank that I think he’s going to play next season and play another two or three more years.

There are two paths I can see (LeBron and Bronny playing together). It’s Bronny being drafted elsewhere and LeBron wanting to join that team. Or, the Lakers stand pat at the deadline, the season goes haywire, they miss the Play-In Tournament or make the Play-In Tournament but not the playoffs, and LeBron asks if he can win a championship here? That still matters to him. He wants to compete for championships. He’s looking for his fifth ring.

If the Lakers are in a position where at the end of the season they end it with a whimper and LeBron doesn’t make the playoffs, I think that’s a situation where he potentially reconsiders his future.

He has roots here in LA. His other son, Bryce, is playing in high school out here and his family is out here in LA. You’d be giving up money and a lifestyle to go somewhere else and try to win a fifth ring.

Overall, handicapping it, I think he’s going to be here and stay in LA.

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Scotto: Darvin Ham is routinely a trending topic on NBA Twitter and Lakers Twitter, and pretty much any coach that coaches the Lakers as we saw with Frank Vogel. Do you see Ham making it through the rest of the season and going into the offseason as the Lakers coach? I do.

Buha: I think he’s safe through the rest of the season. If things went completely haywire and the Lakers lost six, seven, or eight games in a row and you see them spiraling down the standings, that’s where maybe things get wobbly. I had the report with Shams earlier in the month after that Miami loss and the Lakers were trending in that direction. They lost four games in a row for the second time in a few weeks. There was some disconnect in the locker room and players were upset about their roles and rotations. I don’t think that stuff is entirely gone.

I think with Darvin it would’ve had to have gotten to a point that was ugly and unattainable for the Lakers to move on from him. I think it was heading there early in the season.

I think for now he’s safe. I think things would really have to go in a spiral downward for his seat to start getting warm.

You can follow Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) and Jovan Buha (@JovanBuha) on X, formerly known as Twitter.