The Los Angeles Lakers surprised a lot of people when they didn’t make a trade ahead of the 2022 NBA trade deadline. It was widely believed they would try and bolster their roster for the stretch run of the season, but it takes two to tango.
Just because the Lakers want to make a trade doesn’t mean one will get done. There has to be another team willing to make a deal as well and Los Angeles couldn’t find a taker.
They were engaged with a few teams leading up to the deadline. They reportedly had talks with the New York Knicks, but those broke down heading into Thursday. The Orlando Magic and Lakers had talks right up until the deadline centered around Terrence Ross, but a deal was not completed in time.
The other rumor floating around is that the Lakers could have traded Russell Westbrook if they wanted to. The Houston Rockets were willing participants had they been offered the trade compensation they were looking for.
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According to Brian Windhorst, the Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Lakers could have had a deal done centered around Westbrook and John Wall. Ramona Shelburne added that the draft compensation wasn’t as high as many people presumed it would be.
“It would have been John Wall for Russell Westbrook and a draft consideration,” said Brian Windhorst. “There could have been first-rounders moving, but it wouldn’t have been losing a first-rounder maybe?”
“Let’s put it this way,” continued Shelburne. “They would have had to incentivize Houston to do the trade with some kind of draft compensation. I think it was even less than what people have assumed.”
Rumors swirled that the compensation the Houston Rockets were looking for was the Lakers’ 2027 first-round pick. Los Angeles was not willing to include that pick in any trade talks, let alone ones to just part ways with Westbrook. Based on what Shelburne is saying, could multiple second-round picks, which Los Angeles was shopping, had gotten the deal done?
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We will never know, as a deal was not completed. While it sounds like the framework was in place, ultimately, the Lakers were just not ready to pull the plug on their Big 3. There is still a belief if the people within the organization are willing to look deep enough, a winning formula can be put together.
“But I think the Lakers are not ready to pull the ripcord on that Russell Westbrook experiment. I think they feel like the team, the coach, the coaching staff, everything has not done enough to say this isn’t going to work. Russell Westbrook is a future Hall of Famer. There are different ways of being used. And some of this is on Russ too. Russ can still change more too. But I think they feel they gave up so much to get him and he is a really talented player if used correctly. And he has not been used in any kind of way that’s he comfortable with, or has been used, or been good before. We can argue forever whose fault that is. I think it’s a lot of both. I think both sides take some… And some of it’s just reality of playing with LeBron now. It’s a different setup than he’s ever been in.
That is certainly a positive view to take of things, as the results haven’t been great thus far this season. Westbrook’s skill set does not mesh well with LeBron James and Anthony Davis. His struggles shooting the ball and inefficient defense are tougher to compensate for when he doesn’t have the ball in his hands constantly.
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It will take sacrifices from everyone to get the team back on track. Los Angeles is 26-31, riding a three-game losing streak so there is a ton of work left to be done. According to Windhorst, the Lakers don’t want to make a move just for the sake of making a move. They want to build some continuity, which would help in the long run, especially if he is accurate when saying the roster will be pretty much the same in 2022-23 as it is right now.
