Breaking News:The Lakers just confirm another good prospect signing

For The Athletic’s Sam Amick, it’s no longer a matter of if but when would the Los Angeles Lakers land Dejounte Murray.

Amick made the rounds, polling NBA people, and concluded that the Lakers are the frontrunners in landing the Atlanta Hawks’ $120 million star guard.

“It feels like that [trade] has got just very real legs to it,” Amick said on the January 23 episode of “The Athletic NBA Show” podcast. Shams Charania has reported that the offers have gone back and forth. There was some chatter that the Hawks ideally would love to get their hands on Austin Reeves. You know that’s not going to happen right

So it’s a question of like how long does [Hawks general manager] Landry Fields hold out but it feels like that Lakers have separated themselves from the Dejounte pack and it feels like um to some degree, they’ve locked in on him as a guy that they think can help them.

The Lakers and the Hawks have previously discussed a framework of a potential Murray deal, according to Charania

The Lakers and Hawks did have some pretty extensive conversations about a Dejounte Murray trade a couple of weeks ago,” Charania said on Fanduel TV’s “Run It Back” on January 22. It was centered around D’Angelo Russell, a 2029 first-round draft pick, and a pick swap. I’m told the holdup was that Atlanta wanted to find a third team for D’Angelo Russell