The recent Magic Johnson media tour now includes him revealing the Lakers very nearly traded for Buddy Hield and DeMar DeRozan.
There are few things Magic Johnson loves more than talking about the Lakers front office as if he wasn’t part of it for multiple seasons. In fact, part of the reason he left the front office is because he had more interest in tweeting about them than running them.
Recently, Magic re-emerged onto the media trail by appearing on a SiriusXM show and talking about why the team didn’t draft Jayson Tatum, using some insane justification to explain the decision away.
After that, Magic went on FS1’s “Speak” and started talking about trades that were apparently “done.” While he doesn’t give a date, this is presumably going back to 2021 during the offseason when the team eventually made a deal for Russell Westbrook.
However, just before that, they nearly did a trade for Buddy Hield instead. And according to Magic, a deal for DeMar DeRozan was also nearly completed, too.
“They had the trade done. Kuzma for DeMar. And then we were going to get Buddy Hield. That’s all we had to do.”
To be honest, both of these things are probably true, based on reporting. Most remember that the deal for Buddy was so close that basically everyone involved in the deal were left shocked.
And DeMar DeRozan has been, uhh, outspoken to say the least about the possibility of becoming a Laker. Amid all the comments he’s made about wanting to be a Laker, he did also speak about thinking it was a done deal.
It’s a little confusing if you want to get into the specifics about how the team would have done a deal for DeMar and Buddy, but I’m not really all that interested in trying to re-litigate that again.
Ultimately, the Lakers are probably shipping out the same package that got them Russell Westbrook, just in separate deals. Would it have worked? Who’s to say. Would it have been better than what the Westbrook years gave the Lakers? Without question.
All I ask is that Magic please stop going on radio shows or doing appearances on TVs and interviews talking about the Lakers.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.
