Overall Landscape Is Bleak
Thunder GM Sam Presti jumped off the Russell Westbrook train in 2019 and Oklahoma City is not going to want him back. Wizards GM Tommy Sheppard was very quick to pull the trigger on trading Westbrook this past offseason, so they will not want him back either.
Maybe the Knicks will have a level of trade interest in Russell Westbrook since they need a star in their backcourt, but it is hard to believe that Knicks’ GM Scott Perry and team president Leon Rose will want to make this kind of an investment in the offseason.
The Magic, Pistons, and Spurs are three rebuilding franchises that could hypothetically take on Russell Westbrook’s contract as well in the offseason, but there is not a chance that any of these three organizations will want to set themselves back in their rebuilding process by adding a $47 million contract to their payroll.
This leaves the Houston Rockets as the only other team that makes sense for the Lakers in a Russell Westbrook trade, the same team that got rid of him in 2019 for John Wall.
LATEST NBA NEWS & TRADE RUMORS: Lakers Could Have Traded Westbrook; Not Ready To Give Up
A Westbrook-Wall Part II trade is the only way the Lakers can get out of this contract, but still, they will be tied down to John Wall and his $47.3 million player option for the 2022-23 season. Wall is not going to magically fix the Lakers, which is why this franchise is doomed.
Julius Randle, Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma, Jordan Clarkson, and D’Angelo Russell are all former Lakers players that the team had traded in order to eventually bring in guys like LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
LATEST NBA NEWS & TRADE RUMORS: Lakers Could Have Traded Westbrook; Not Ready To Give Up
The Lakers won a title with James and Davis in 2020, so I guess you could say every trade made paid off for this organization, but in a hypothetical world, the Lakers could still have Randle, Ingram, Ball, and other young, All-Star-like talents.
Los Angeles paid the ultimate price to win a championship and now, the ever-looming “rebuild” is on the horizon for the Lakers, especially with LeBron James now being 37-years-old and starting to show some signs of deterioration over the last few seasons.
