NBA Champion Ready To Engineer Lakers Move, Sacrificing $17.2 Million: Report

Andre Iguodala, a three-time NBA champion with the Golden State Warriors, will be traded to the Memphis Grizzlies as part of a sign-and-trade deal that will see D’Angelo Russell join the Warriors from Brooklyn Nets. It was a move aimed at softening the blow of Kevin Durant deciding to walk away and sign with the Nets in free agency.

The 35-year-old shooting guard, however, is said to have alternate plans after being traded to the Grizzlies and there is a chance he will not wear his new team’s jersey this upcoming season. Iguodala, according to Stephen A. Smith, is considering completing a buyout of the final year of his contract and joining the Los Angeles Lakers this summer.

"He has basically -- according to sources -- informed everybody he's going to work out a buyout and then go to the Lakers,” Smith said talking about Iguodala on his radio show on ESPN Monday, as quoted on NBC Sports Bay Area.

"So Andre Iguodala is planning on joining the Lakers from what we're being told. I don't know how true that is, whether or not it is going to definitively happen,” he added. "But that is the plan at this particular moment in time."

The Warriors shooting guard is scheduled to make just under $17.2 million next season as per the remaining year on his contract. But he will have to sacrifice millions if he wants to complete a buyout and become an unrestricted free agent to join the Lakers.

ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne had predicted a potential interest from the Lakers immediately after news surfaced about Iguodala's potential trade to the Grizzlies. She pointed toward the 2015 NBA Finals MVP’s connection with Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka, who has previously served as the guard’s agent.

“Iguodala is a former Rob Pelinka client. If his stay in Memphis is short, don’t be surprised to see Lakers get involved,” Shelburne wrote in response to Adrian Wojnarowski’s tweet about Iguodala being traded to the Grizzlies.