West Notes: Lakers, Patrick Beverley, Suns, Kings

Lakers

The Lakers are continuing to seek out trades ahead of the Feb. 9 deadline and may be focused on the backcourt, per Brian Windhorst of ESPN.

“I think that they’re gonna continue to be active looking for guards, basically looking to upgrade their guards, seeing if they can upgrade from Patrick Beverley especially,” Windhorst said, via Lakers Daily.

• We have more Lakers news and trade rumors right here, and always on our Lakers page here as it becomes available.

Suns

• A more prominent role for forward Mikal Bridges has benefitted the Suns, per Kellan Olson of Arizona Sports.
• As we relayed here, the Suns continue to seek a third team to help facilitate a trade of forward Jae Crowder to the Bucks. (Full post.)
• The Heat are not willing to swap forward Caleb Martin for Crowder, per Anthony Chiang and Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald.

Kings

Coach Mike Brown said serving as an assistant under Steve Kerr helped him with his own coaching philosophy.

“Steve has an ability to be confident and secure; to be comfortable in his own skin,” Brown told Windhorst. “It’s extremely important to get your team to believe in itself, and it was something I needed to try to install here.”

The Kings may be the NBA’s most pleasant surprise this season and appear primed to make the playoffs for the first time since 2006.

“We’re having some fun,” Brown said, via Windhorst. “But we’ve got a lot of season left.”

• As a result of all the winning, Kings general manager Monte McNair received a contract extension earlier this week, as did assistant GM Wes Wilcox. We have the details here.