The Los Angeles Lakers have been playing well recently, currently sitting 11 games over .500 after a recent road win over the Chicago Bulls. Still, some have speculated that a trade could be on the horizon for the Lakers, with the deadline looming next week.
On Wednesday, Shams Charania of ESPN reported that “Giannis Antetokounmpo is ready for a new home at the Feb. 5 NBA trade deadline or in the offseason as several rival teams make aggressive offers to the Milwaukee Bucks for him,” on X, formerly Twitter.
Now, former NBA guard Gilbert Arenas is imploring the Lakers to get in on the action.
“Listen Jeanie Buss, LeBron, whoever is running the organization right now. We got players to blow, we can get it in, okay. Marcus Smart, sorry, you can go. AR, Rui, Jake From All State,” said Arenas in a video posted to his X account.
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“Hey Giannis, you could have the house. Come here, I’ll move into an apartment. You, Luka, and LeBron James, we are winning this year. Come on. We love Greece over here. Oh my God, make it happen. Rich, hit me up,” he added.
At this point, it's unclear whether the Lakers would be able to come anywhere close to the inevitably high asking price that the Bucks will have for their best player in franchise history. A high-profile trade between the Lakers and Bucks worked out pretty well for Los Angeles in the 1970s when they brought in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Los Angeles would hope to rekindle that historic streak if a similar deal were to go down with Antetokounmpo.
However, at the current juncture, the more likely scenario seems to be that Rob Pelinka and company look to make some smaller moves along the margins in order to help the Lakers out defensively, where they have struggled this year.
Los Angeles will next take the court on Wednesday evening vs the Cleveland Cavaliers.