After the midseason championship game, the Lakers did not have a smooth life, they fell from fourth place in the West to 12th in the West, which is not a good omen for a team that wants to seize the end of James' career and attack the championship, so the Lakers are ready to actively look for a reasonable reinforcement to make the team maintain a good competitiveness in the remaining games, and can stand out in the strong West and advance to the playoffs.
So, they set their sights on Dejounte Murray, who has been performing very well this season, and Murray is averaging 21.4 points, 5 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game this season. And Murray has a good outside defensive ability, which is also a valuable ability that the Lakers need at this stage, because Russell and Rivers are not good enough to defend, and the scoring of the two is not stable enough, which also causes the Lakers to often lag far behind their opponents on the outside, so Murray is a very good reinforcement for the Lakers.
Since the Lakers want to get Murray, he must send one of Russell and Rivers to the Hawks, and among the two, Russell's defensive ability is already poor, and the Lakers renew his contract because of his excellent offensive performance, but Russell's performance this season is not satisfactory, so Russell naturally became one of the main candidates for discussion. A few days ago, the Lakers made a trade offer in which they wanted to use Russell + 2029 first-round pick + 1 first-round pick swap right as a bargaining chip in exchange for Murray. However, the deal appears to have fallen through due to Russell's recent stellar performances.
In the game against the Jazz, Russell's state has picked up, he bombarded 39 points, 3 rebounds and 8 assists, although in James' absence, the Lakers did not win, but this is the first game in which Russell was promoted to the starter, and he gave a satisfactory answer to the Lakers management with such an outstanding performance.
In the last 8 games, Russell helped the Lakers achieve a 5-3 record, he averaged 27.5 points and 6.4 assists per game, shooting 52% from the field and 54% from three-point range, and Russell has scored more than 20 points in six consecutive games. And the Lakers also defeated the Warriors yesterday because of Russell's recovery in form, and are currently in ninth place in the West, returning to the play-in ranks.
It is precisely because of Russell's outstanding performance that he has won the trust of the Lakers management again, so this morning the Lakers management seems to have given up on the idea of trading Russell and revoked the trade offer. This is very exciting news for Russell, who has been in the league for so many years, and although he has been on many teams, he still has that heart when he returns to the team that drafted him.
After the end of last season, Russell signed a low-cost contract, successfully stayed with the Lakers, and in order to show his sincerity to the Lakers, he voluntarily gave up the trade veto right in the new contract, and he also became the first player in the league to give up after the implementation of the new collective bargaining agreement, which shows how strong Russell's desire to stay with the Lakers is. And he also relied on his own strength to successfully get rid of trading rumors.