Lakers Rumors: Kevin Love To LA, Pau Gasol, Chris Kaman, Jordan Hill To Leave

With basketball’s trade deadline looming, the LA Lakers are set to be heavily active as they change they try to change their roster before Thursday.

The Lakers are rumored to be interested in Minnesota Timberwolves’ Kevin Love, and they’re even prepared to offer a trade deal to land their target. They’re expected to face competition from the Dallas Mavericks for his signature though.

Love was expected to move to the West Coast when he becomes a free agent in the summer, however the Lakers apparently can’t wait that long and they want to land him before Thursday’s deadline.

A deal could include Pau Gasol and a very high first round draft pick, while an insider also noted, “The Lakers, Love’s first choice, ‘have the best shot’ of landing the Southern California native, one person familiar with the player’s thinking said.”

Flip Saunders, the Timberwolves’ president is now in control of Love’s destination. Either he can take the Lakers’ offer, or he can wait until the summer and hope that Love decides to stay.

Meanwhile, Gasol, who has also been linked to the Charlotte Bobcats, has admitted that he has become a tad exacerbated, after constantly being linked with a move away from the side.

After the Lakers’ first practice since the All-Star break, he erupted at ESPN when questioned on his future, “It fills up a lot of pages and f****** airtime. It’s something that’s there and there’s potential that it might happen. Who knows? We might be saying that it’s been great to see you guys [in the media] and we’ll see you around. But hopefully that won’t be the case because it’s always hard and I think if it ever happened, it would be tough.”

The 33-year-old clearly wants to stay, because when he was made aware that Wednesday could be the last time he pulls on the Lakers’ colors he stated, “I hope not.”

Another Lakers player who might be on the move is Chris Kaman, who is reportedly being eyed up by the Cleveland Cavaliers. Kaman recently went nine games without playing but has come back into favor with some fine performances.

Forward Jordan Hill has also been the subject of a rumor linking him with a move back to the east coast, where he could play for the Brooklyn Nets.

Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports reported, “The Los Angeles Lakers have had discussions on a deal to send forward Jordan Hill to the Brooklyn Nets, league sources told Yahoo Sports. The Nets have a $5.25 million disabled player exception that they can use in a trade or free-agent transaction until March 10, and could use a portion to absorb the remaining $3.5 million on Hill’s expiring contract.”