Report: Lakers Turned Down a Trade for Michael Beasley

With the trade deadling looming, you can expect to read about a trillion of these types of stories. Sorry. Here’s the latest rumor, per the Daily News: “The NBA trade deadline is only two weeks away, and the league’s rumor mill was cranked up to full throttle Wednesday. For starters, the Lakers reportedly took a pass on acquiring Minnesota small forward Michael Beasley for a first-round draft pick. The Lakers remain interested in every other player on every other team, if the chatter is to be believed, including center Dwight Howard of Orlando and/or power forward Luis Scola and point guard Kyle Lowry of Houston. Weeks ago, Boston was rumored to be willing to send point guard Rajon Rondo to the Lakers for power forward Pau Gasol, which seemed highly unlikely at the time. Now, it appears the Celtics actually are trying to deal Rondo. It remains to be seen if the Lakers have any interest in Rondo, whose lack of a perimeter shooting touch could give them pause. […] The Lakers’ secondary need would be at small forward, which explained their interest in Beasley. They turned down a proposed deal with the Timberwolves, according to a report posted on ESPN.com, because of luxury-tax concerns. Beasley’s salary of $6.2 million would add to their $88million payroll, which is already $18 million above the league’s luxury tax. One of the unstated reasons general manager Mitch Kupchak agreed to trade forward Lamar Odom to Dallas for a first-round pick and an $8.9million trade exception was to trim the team’s payroll.”