Lakers acquire center Mark Williams in trade with…
The Lakers knew they’d a huge gap to fill on the inside after trading center Anthony Davis away to the Mavericks in a huge three-team trade in which they acquired star Luka Doncic.
They crammed that gap on Wednesday evening.
Los Angeles snagged its much-coveted center, agreeing to a deal for 7-footer Mark Williams of the Charlotte Hornets, in response to ESPN’s Shams Charania.
The Lakers are sending guard Dalton Knecht, small ahead Cam Reddish, a 2031 unprotected first-round decide and a 2030 picks swap to the Hornets to finish the deal, per Charania.
Mark Williams NBAE through Getty Images
Williams, who has some sturdiness points, provides the Lakers a huge improve at center since they traded away Davis, advert he has put up offensive numbers that match some of the NBA’s different elite huge males.
According to ESPN, Williams is averaging 22.4 factors and 13.8 rebounds per 36 minutes this season, and the one different gamers to average no less than 22 factors and 13 rebounds per 36 minutes this season are Domantas Sabonis and Karl-Anthony Towns.
But the injury-prone 23-year-old huge man, who’s in his third NBA season, has performed in simply 85 of a attainable 212 video games of his profession, roughly 40 p.c of the time.
Jaxson Hayes, who had began at center the previous three video games, probably would be the backup for Los Angeles.
Though the Lakers acquired a promising younger participant, they needed to ship one to the Mavericks in the 23-year-old Knecht, a sharp-shooting guard who was the No. 17 decide in the 2024 NBA Draft out of Tennessee.
Dalton Knecht NBAE through Getty Images
Knecht, who’s averaging 9.4 factors and three.1 rebounds per sport, ranks fifth in whole factors and second in whole 3-pointers amongst rookies this season.
He additionally has a pair of 25-point video games, tied for second.
The Hornets additionally get the Reddish, a former Knick who averaged 3.3 factors per sport in 31 video games for the Lakers this season.
Rebuilding Charlotte continues to pile up draft picks.
They embrace their own first-rounders in the following seven drafts, a top-14 protected first from Miami (2027, unprotected in 2028), a top-two protected first from Dallas (2027), the correct to swap firsts with the Lakers (2030) and an unprotected first from Lakers (2031).
This Lakers-Hornets trade comes on the heels of the early Sunday morning blockbuster trade that surprised the NBA world.
In the sophisticated three-team deal, the Mavericks despatched Doncic, Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris to the Lakers whereas Davis, Max Christie and a 2029 first-round decide had been shipped to Dallas. The Jazz had been the third group in the deal and bought Jalen Hood-Schifino and two 2025 second-round draft picks from the Clippers and Mavericks.
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