Los Angeles Lakers Chasing Sacramento Kings' DeMarcus Cousins

The Los Angeles Lakers are seriously pursuing a trade involving Sacramento Kings franchise player DeMarcus Cousins. According to a report, the Lakers, Kings and Orlando Magic have already had exploratory talks that will potentially bring the star big man to Hollywood.

ESPN.com’s Marc Stein reported about the probable three-team deal on Monday, but he added that the Kings are insisting, via Vlade Divac, who is part of the Kings’ front office, that Cousins is not available for a trade.

“That is not happening,” Divac told the Sacramento Bee, when asked about the Cousins trade rumors. “But I would love to do something, a smaller move, before the draft. We have a lot of changes to make. The league is much more up-tempo now, and we need more three-point shooting. If we don’t get that in the draft, we’ll be active in free agency and see about making trades later in the offseason.”

A cryptic tweet from Cousins on Monday added fuel to the fire that there is something brewing behind the scenes in Sacramento.

The Kings will pick sixth overall in Thursday's 2015 NBA Draft in Brooklyn, New York. Top rookie prospects, as per various mock drafts, include Karl-Anthony Towns, Jahlil Okafor, D’Angelo Russell, Emmanuel Mudiay, Kristaps Porzingis, Justise Winslow, Mario Hezonja, Trey Lyles and Cameron Payne.

The Kings have hired George Karl as head coach. Based on the play of his past teams, the veteran mentor prefers an up-tempo style of basketball. There is also a report from Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports that Karl is pushing for the Kings to trade Cousins.

Cousins, who is considered one of the rising stars in the game, averaged a double-double of 24.1 points and 12.7 rebounds with 1.7 blocked shot per game in the 2014-15 season.