With Klay Thompson headed to the Mavericks, the Lakers have set their sights on another high-end scorer to help bolster their lineup for next season.
Los Angeles is now trying to land free agent DeMar DeRozan, according to a Wednesday report by The Athletic.
The LA native and USC product is a six-time All-Star and averaged 24 points per game last season for the Bulls.
His time in the Windy City is all but over, but the Lakers aren’t the only team interested in trying to add DeRozan’s services.
Both the Miami Herald and The Athletic reported that the Heat have an interest in bringing in the forward as well, with Miami viewed as the slight favorite to land DeRozan.
DeRozan, 34, has met with the Heat and discussed what his potential fit would be, and it appeared that there was a mutual interest between the two sides, according to the Miami Herald.
There may be some complications for the Heat to land DeRozan, with Miami likely having to facilitate a trade of a player who makes decent money to a team with cap space and thus allowing the room for Miami to pull off a sign and trade with the Bulls for DeRozan.
If the Heat wanted to go the non-trade route, they would be able to sign him at the $5.2 million taxpayer midlevel exception rate.
The Lakers, though, have said that they plan on being aggressive to update the roster.
“I think we’re gonna always be aggressive to try to make roster upgrades and will be relentless to continue to look at what we can do,” general manager Rob Pelinka said, according to The Athletic. “This is the season of being mindful of all the different things we can approach to improve the roster. So we’re in the midst of that as we speak.
“That will continue in the coming days, and it often spills into Vegas, where all the GMs meet and gather, and other deals get done. But we’ll stay aggressive.”
