Magic Johnson says Lakers traded for Buddy Hield, DeMar DeRozan

On By Littum

There are few things Magic Johnson loves more than talking about the Lakers front office as if he wasn’t a part of it for several seasons. In fact, part of the reason he left the front office is because he was more interested in tweeting about them than running them.

Recently, Magic resurfaced on the media trail by appearing on a SiriusXM show and talking about why the team didn’t draft Jayson Tatum, using a crazy rationale to explain away the decision.

After that, Magic went on FS1’s “Speak” and started talking about trades that were apparently “done”. Although he did not provide a date, this presumably dates back to 2021 during the offseason when the team eventually made a deal for Russell Westbrook.

But right before that, they almost made a trade for Buddy Hield instead. And according to the Magic, a deal for DeMar DeRozan was also nearly complete.

“They got the deal done. Kuzma for DeMar. And then we had to get Buddy Hield. That’s all we had to do.”

To be honest, both of these things are probably true, based on reporting. Most people remember that the deal for Buddy was so close that pretty much everyone involved in the deal was shocked.

And DeMar DeRozan has been, uh, outspoken to say the least about the possibility of becoming a Laker. Amidst all the comments he’s made about wanting to be a Laker, he also talked about thinking it was a done deal.

It’s a little confusing if you want to get into the details of how the team would have made a deal for DeMar and Buddy, but I’m not really that interested in trying to renegotiate it again.

In the end, the Lakers are likely to send the same package that got them Russell Westbrook, just in separate deals. Would it have worked? Who’s to say. Would it have been better than what the Westbrook years brought to the Lakers? Without question.

All I’m asking is that Magic please stop going on radio shows or appearing on TV and doing interviews about the Lakers.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.