Trade Russell Westbrook And Whatever Houston Wants For John Wall
Russell Westbrook has been the scapegoat for all of the Lakers’ problems this season, even though none of this is his fault. Westbrook was thrown into a bad situation in Los Angeles this season and the reason he has not been his All-Star self is because his play style does not mesh with that of LeBron James and Anthony Davis in any way.
Using his athleticism to his advantage and being such a ball-centric player, Russell Westbrook has had to play off-the-ball due to James and Davis controlling the pace of play offensively. With Westbrook not being much of a shooter, this basically makes him worthless to the Lakers, hence his struggles with them this season.
Trading Russell Westbrook is a must for the Lakers and it seems like this is the only way they can try to improve moving forward. However, it is not so easy to just trade a man on a $47 million contract.
With Ben Simmons now in Brooklyn, the only trade scenario that would work for the Lakers in terms of moving Russell Westbrook would be to trade him to Houston for John Wall, but there are still problems with making this trade, which we will get into shortly.
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In terms of simply adding John Wall, maybe Wall is the better All-Star point guard to pair with LeBron James and Anthony Davis simply because he is a facilitator.
Russell Westbrook is also a facilitator, but the difference between him and Wall is that John Wall does not need to always have the ball in his hands to be effective.
Wall has been known to be a factor defensively over the course of his career and is someone that can defer to other star players, unlike Russell Westbrook.
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At the NBA trade deadline, it was said that the Lakers and Rockets did have mutual interest in a Westbrook-Wall swap, but that Houston wanted an extra first-round pick from Los Angeles, something the Lakers were unwilling to include.
The Lakers are not in the driver’s seat for any negotiations right now, which is why if this deal is still presentable in the offseason, they need to just give in and get John Wall, no matter what it takes.
