After the Los Angeles Lakers were eliminated from the 2020-21 playoffs in the first round, finding a third scoring option became the primary goal.
L.A. moved on from players such as Dennis Schroder, who didn’t live up to expectations in the playoffs and browsed the market for potential upgrades.
One of those was DeMar DeRozan, who, at the time, was a member of the San Antonio Spurs. A potential trade would’ve sent Kyle Kuzma the other way. Though it fell through, DeRozan opened up about how he thought he would be a Laker, via Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports:
“I felt like going to the Lakers was a done deal and that we were going to figure it out. I was going to come home. The business side of things just didn’t work out. A couple of things didn’t align. It didn’t work out. It’s just part of the business, part of the game. My next option was definitely Chicago. So, looking back at it, it worked out well.”
The Lakers eventually traded for Russell Westbrook, and DeRozan understood the move was just business:
“Nah, Russ is a Hall of Fame player, It’s hard to turn down that caliber of player. I can’t speak for the Lakers, but they went with what they felt was best for them. And all due respect to them. No hard feelings. No animosity, but I just look at it as part of the game. A deal is never done until it’s done. I learned that. It just didn’t work out. I’m just happy I’m in Chicago.”
Through 14 games, DeRozan is averaging 26.9 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.1 assists while shooting 51% overall and 37.1% from deep.
