Lakers Rival Almost Acquired Jarred Vanderbilt & Malik Beasley Before LA: Report

Getty Jarred Vanderbilt and Malik Beasley

A Los Angeles Lakers rival reportedly almost acquired Jarred Vanderbilt and Malik Beasley before the purple and gold.

Michael Scotto of HoopsHype reported on March 2 that Vanderbilt and Beasley nearly went to the Phoenix Suns in a three-team trade involving the Utah Jazz and Atlanta Hawks. John Collins would have gone from Atlanta to Utah and Jae Crowder and Landry Shamet would have landed in Atlanta.

“Atlanta also tried to acquire Crowder in three-team trade talks with Utah and Phoenix centered around Collins going to Utah, Jarred Vanderbilt and Malik Beasley going to Phoenix, and Crowder and Shamet going to Atlanta,” Scotto reported. “Among the reasons this scenario didn’t materialize was a disagreement in draft pick compensation that would’ve gone to Utah in the talks.”

The Suns wound up trading Crowder to the Brooklyn Nets as part of the blockbuster Kevin Durant deal. Brooklyn then sent Crowder to the Milwaukee Bucks.

The Lakers, meanwhile, acquired Vanderbilt and Beasley from the Jazz for Russell Westbrook, Juan Toscano-Anderson, Damian Jones and a 2027 first-round pick. Los Angeles also got D’Angelo Russell from the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Jarred Vanderbilt & Malik Beasley Have Been Great for the Lakers

The Lakers are 6-3 with Vanderbilt and Beasley in the lineup. Both players have been great additions to the team.

Beasley is averaging 13.0 points while shooting 35.6% from beyond the arc with the Lakers, while Vanderbilt is putting up 8.0 points, 8.2 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.4 steals per game. Los Angeles needed a shooter like Beasley next to LeBron James and Anthony Davis and Vanderbilt has been a swiss army knife for the LakeShow.

The Lakers defeated the Dallas Mavericks on February 26 by erasing a 27-point deficit on the road. James and Davis combined for 56 points in the win, but it was Vanderbilt who was the unsung hero. The lefty finished with 15 points, 17 rebounds and four steals while shooting 6-of-8 from the field. He single-handedly turned the game around late in the second quarter with his defense and energy and James and Davis had multiple positive things to say about Vanderbilt.

“Very valuable,” Davis said during his postgame interview while describing Vanderbilt’s impact. “Being down 27, 14 at half and he comes out and set the tone for us defensively on Luka (Doncic). Getting some steals. Making him shoot some tough shots. His rebounding on both ends of the floor. He just started an effect for our group to lock in defensively. On the other end, he knows guys like to play off of him and make him shoot and he knows how to play off it with his corner cutting and crashing into the glass, getting us extra possessions. His value for our team, you can’t even put it into words what he brings and does for us. Having a player like that definitely helps us.”

Added James: “I think some guys in our league when you’re not great at something, teams are able to use that to their advantage defensively and either sag off of you or play off of you. Sometimes, you’re playing offense 5 on 4, whatever the case may be. His basketball IQ and his intelligence of being guarded this way for so long has actually used it to his advantage. Teams turn their head because they’re not paying attention to him because they don’t think he’s a threat, goes backdoor for a layup as you saw in the fourth quarter on the reverse. Teams are not accounting for him when shots go up, so you saw the eight offensive rebounds that he had.”

Malik Beasley Is Getting More Comfortable With Anthony Davis

After the Lakers beat the Golden State Warriors on March 5, Beasley told reporters that he’s getting more comfortable with Davis.

“Well, I told him I played with KAT [Karl-Anthony Towns] and Joker [Nikola Jokic]. So like sometimes he has to be the one who handles the ball instead of me,” Beasley said. “Or like I set screens for him so I can get a smaller defender on him, and if they trap him, I got an open shot. So we’re still working on our two-man game, but it’s getting better and better every game and I think he realizes he could be more of a threat with me in the action with him.”

James is out with a right foot injury, so Davis, Beasley and Vanderbilt will have to play at a high level for the Lakers to win games.