With the NBA trade deadline less than two weeks away, teams like the Los Angeles Lakers should be scouring the market looking for meaningful upgrades to help their playoff push.

Although the Lakers have been playing better basketball as of late, there are still several needs on the roster. Los Angeles already made one move, sending out D’Angelo Russell, Maxwell Lewis and three second round picks to the Brooklyn Nets for Dorian Finney-Smith and Shake Milton. While Finney-Smith has been the perfect role player for the Lakers, the team could use another true center or perimeter scoring threat to round out the roster.

As is the case every year, though, Los Angeles has been linked to star names in the trade market given their history of chasing after such players. This time around, they’ve been rumored as a potential landing spot for Sacramento Kings guard De’Aaron Fox.

Reports recently surfaced that the Kings are willing to listen on trade offers for Fox, but it appears the star isn’t interested in going to the Lakers, via Shams Charania of ESPN:

“The only thing I can say with Rich Paul, we know he’s got LeBron James and Anthony Davis on the Lakers. I’m told the Lakers are not part of that destination of choice for De’Aaron Fox, potentially. But he is now potentially entering the NBA’s trade market.”

Los Angeles would be a force to be reckoned with if they managed to trade for Fox and paired him with LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Unfortunately, that dream already seems dead if this report from Charania is true.

Even if Fox wanted to come to the Lakers, coming up with a feasible trade would require the team to send out players like Rui Hachimura, Austin Reaves and other salaries plus picks to make it work. While Fox is certainly worth the haul, Los Angeles would then be left without much depth and minimal options to round out the rest of the roster.

It remains to be seen whether or not Fox’s preferred destination comes to light, but for now it’s best to assume he won’t be joining the purple and gold.

Lakers not expected to pursue Nikola Vucevic or Jakob Poeltl

One of the glaring needs on the Lakers’ roster is another center to play either alongside or behind Davis. However, it appears that Los Angeles isn’t expected to pursue either Nikola Vucevic or Jakob Poeltl due to their contracts.

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