NBA Trade Rumors: Examining Top Reports Entering 2016 Combine

With NBA draft season nearly underway, beginning with the start of the combine in Chicago on May 11, consider it NBA trade rumor season as well.

Even before the lottery, this is the time of year when rumors start to kick up in a hurry as rebuilding teams flirt with the idea of reeling in a superstar and would-be contenders begin looking for missing pieces after missing the playoffs or suffering an early exit from the bracket.

The impending free-agency decision of Kevin Durant amplifies the situation. With Durant, Rajon Rondo, perhaps Dwight Howard and so many more heading to the market, there’s a window available during the year’s hottest months for teams to forgo building through the draft and get immediate boosts.

With such themes in mind, it’s only right to take an early look at some of the top rumblings making the rounds before the spectacle in Chicago gets underway.

Lakers Dangling Top Pick?

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Did anyone really think the Los Angeles Lakers were going to stick with a traditional rebuild?

Presumably, Los Angeles got what it wanted out of this past season—Kobe Bryant’s farewell tour being a momentous occasion while the team tanked—grabbed another top pick and gave coach Byron Scott the boot.

But this summer has always been the target date for the Lakers.

Getting a young core of D’Angelo Russell and Julius Randle is nice, but few had to believe the Lakers were going to add another top-five talent and then wait for the core to develop.

Please. This is Los Angeles, and sooner or later, jobs will be on the line. As if on cue, The Ringer’s Bill Simmons provided one possibility for the franchise:

Also hearing that the Lakers want to make a BIG run at Paul George with their top-3 pick plus other stuff. (Not that they’d get him…)

— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) May 4, 2016

These sorts of things will continue to pop up with Bryant out of the way.

Whether it’s Paul George, Durant with Russell Westbrook wanting to join him a year later or somebody else, superstars can now go to Los Angeles and own it, should they want to battle …

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