As the Marquette Golden Eagles, road warriors, savored yet another victory in a hostile place Tuesday night, their peculiar journey seemed to fit right in with the evening’s usual batch of college basketball oddities.Daryl Morey is seemingly never satisfied with his roster. To that end, Morey went fishing at the trade deadline to see if the Philadelphia 76ers could land a star.
Morey called the Los Angeles Lakers as to the availability of LeBron James via trade. Morey reportedly made this call after James cryptically posted an hourglass emoji in the days leading up to the deadline.
When the Lakers countered by asking about the availability of Joel Embiid, Morey turned his sites to the Phoenix Suns. The Sixers first asked about Kevin Durant, before inquiring about Devin Booker and Bradley Beal.
Going after stars isn’t a new tactic for Morey. He’s known as one of the league’s more aggressive executives in pursuing stars via trade. Morey going star-hunting at this deadline may give some insight into his offseason plans.
The 76ers are likely to hit the offseason with somewhere between $40 and $60 million in cap space. That could go a long way towards trading for a star to team Embiid and a re-sign Tyrese Maxey.
The Golden State Warriors only ended up making one small deal at the trade deadline, but they tried to make a mega deal as they inquired with the Los Angeles Lakers on a trade for LeBron James.
Draymond Green made the initial push to the team’s ownership and management, before also consulting Rich Paul, who represents both Green and James. Joe Lacob had a conversation with Jeanie Buss about the idea. Buss told Lacob that the Lakers had no desire to trade James, but referred the Warriors to discuss it directly with James’ representation.
James and Paul said that he preferred to remain with the Lakers. Rob Pelinka also confirmed that the team had no desire to trade their superstar.
One notable aspect is that these trade discussions started with the teams’ owners. That indicates a level of seriousness that is generally not present in initial conversations. The other notable thing is that the Lakers left the decision up to James on whether or not trade talks should happen.
The Warriors could revisit their pursuit of James in the offseason as he holds a $51.4 million player option.
