LeBron, AD wants the Lakers to be aggressive in the trade market

With just 15 days left until the NBA’s 2025 trade deadline arrives, Lakers stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis are “increasingly concerned” about the team’s ability to make significant upgrades on the trade market, league sources say Shams Charania of ESPN (Insider link).

James and Davis believe the Lakers could be just a piece or two away from contending for a title and have expressed their desire for the front office to make moves to try to add those pieces, according to Charania.

This is consistent with reporting from Jovan Buha from The Athleticwho wrote Tuesday that James and Davis favor an “all-in approach” to the trade market, noting that LeBron “has never valued draft picks.”

The Lakers, currently sixth in the Western Conference at 23-18, have two tradeable first-round picks available in 2029 and 2031. They also have a pair of 2025 second-rounders on hand (their own and the Clippers’) and could trade the first-round pick swaps for up to three years (2026, 2028 and 2030).

Front office – led by executive VP of basketball operations Rob Pelinka – has taken a relatively conservative approach to the trade deadline in recent years, opting out of making any moves in 2021, 2022 and 2024. In 2023, the club gave up Russell Westbrook and a lightly protected first-round pick to land D’Angelo Russell, Malik Beasleyand Jared Vanderbilt — That deal helped propel them to a strong second-half finish and a spot in the Western Conference Finals.

The Lakers, who already made a move last month for Dorian Finney-Smithhave done their due diligence in trade talks so far this season and are open to sending out one or both of their tradable first-round picks for players who would be both short- and long-term fits, reports Charania.

It’s unclear if there will be a difference-maker available that the Lakers will be able to acquire using their limited assets, especially since a few of their potential salary-matching pieces — including Gabe Vincent and Vanderbilt – probably have negative trade value.

Still, Charania suggests that since many of the top seeds in the West this season are young teams with limited playoff experience, there is a “perception of a wide-open league” that could spur buyers to be more aggressive.

“Boston, OKC and Cleveland are what they are,” a senior team official told ESPN. “But this is wide open.”