The Los Angeles Lakers took a chance when they acquired former NBA MVP Russell Westbrook from the Washington Wizards. The move has been a flop and now the focus has shifted to how the team can move on from him as opposed to having hope of it turning around.
There was speculation ahead of the NBA trade deadline regarding how the Lakers could move on from Westbrook. Talk of a trade with the Houston Rockets by attaching a first-round pick with Westbrook to acquire John Wall was a commonly mentioned option.
According to Bleacher Report’s Jake Fischer, one bold course of action the Los Angeles Lakers could take to move on from Russell Westbrook could include stretching his final-year of salary.
“Los Angeles’ most realistic option may ultimately be stretching Westbrook’s $47 million player option for the 2022-23 season. The Lakers have already shown a willingness to stretch Luol Deng’s contract, which finally slips off Los Angeles’ books this year, although that came under Mitch Kupchak’s stewardship.
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“Stretching Westbrook, according to the strategist, would drop the Lakers to merely $2.5 million above the salary cap, which would allow them to sign a rotation piece to the non-taxpayer mid-level, and another player to the bi-annual exception.”
The impact for the Lakers by stretching Westbrook’s salary would be to avoid having to part with future draft capital in an effort to move on from his contract. There’s no perfect solution in a situation of this nature. It comes down to whether the Lakers would want to wait out the final year of the deal or not.
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The Los Angeles Lakers will have limited options to re-shape the roster around LeBron James and Anthony Davis even if they were to stretch Russell Westbrook’s final year of his contract.
