Magic Johnson Doesn’t Regret D’Angelo Russell Trade; Many Teams Showed Interest

Shortly after the NBA offseason got underway this summer, the Los Angeles Lakers made a move that no one saw coming. The team traded guard D’Angelo Russell to the Brooklyn Nets with Timofey Mozgov to acquire a first-round draft pick and All-Star center, Brook Lopez.

So far, it appears the Lakers may have gotten part of the trade with the team bringing in a promising young rookie Kyle Kuzma along with arguably one the best shooting centers in the league. Whether it turns out to be a trade that works in the team’s favor remains to be seen, but Magic Johnson has no regrets so far.

Johnson recently spoke about the D’Angelo trade and admitted there was plenty of interest in the former No. 2 overall pick and that he’s not looking back, via Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN:

“I am not one of them dudes,” the Lakers president of basketball operations replied. “When I say bye, that’s it. I keep moving. I can’t get caught in emotions and all that. That is not who I am. We moved and we kept moving. After that trade we went on to the next thing.” Johnson added, “Like five teams called for D’Angelo [so] we knew that we could move D’Angelo for one of the pieces that we were looking for. So we decided on Brooklyn, they got a great player in D’Angelo and we got what we wanted.”

Not only may have this been a good trade for the Lakers, but it may also have been exactly what was needed for Russell. The Nets are in desperate need of a star player, and D’Angelo could very well turn into that missing piece in Brooklyn.

Ironically enough, Russell will share the backcourt with another former Lakers point guard Jeremy Lin. These two could be primed for breakout seasons if the pairing turns out to be what was intended for the Nets.

As for the Lakers, the team will focus on building around Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram while hoping to lure in LeBron James and Paul George next year.