Russell Westbrook – G, Los Angeles Lakers
How do you solve a problem like Russell Westbrook? You can’t bench him – he won’t let you. It’s very difficult to trade him, given his increasingly gargantuan contracts. Really, he doesn’t fit anywhere in the league. But he’s still good enough to warrant a roster spot. Even if it’s just to avoid never hearing the end of it from him on social media.
That roster spot won’t be with the Los Angeles Lakers. That experiment has run its course after just one failure of a season, and the idea that Westbrook would return to La La Land for another trip around the sun is about as unlikely as me taking his starting spot alongside Avery Bradley and Wenyen Gabriel (lucky me). It’s not a matter of does Westbrook get moved; it’s a matter of where.
Recently, Marc Stein reported that the Charlotte Hornets could be a potential suitor to pick up Westbrook and his $47 million expiring contract. “While Hornets owner Michael Jordan has long ranked as a Westbrook admirer, it’s not yet clear if that would give such a trade concept more life,” Stein wrote on his Substack site. “The scenario has nonetheless been mentioned by multiple rival teams in recent weeks and, if nothing else, illustrates the likelihood that the Lakers would largely be limited to trades in which they’re the team taking on more long-term money if they want to move off Westbrook immediately.”
Why Charlotte would ever want to add Russell Westbrook to their mishmash is beyond me. He doesn’t fit alongside LaMelo Ball, as his ball-dominant style would undoubtedly stunt Ball’s development in more ways than one. He’d probably want Terry Rozier’s share of shots, and while I’d pay large sums of money to see them go at it in a battle for shot-attempt supremacy, I don’t wish that torture on James Borrego and his young core.
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Essentially, Charlotte’s main motivation, per Stein, would be to rid themselves of Gordon Hayward and Terry Rozier’s contracts in order to create more cap space that would make contract extensions for LaMelo Ball and Miles Bridges an inevitably, not just a possibility. Is Westbrook the best way for them to go about that? Likely not. But he needs a change of scenery – perhaps Charlotte could be a starting point.
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Either way, it’s a shock to see where we’ve landed with the Russell Westbrook narrative. A few seasons ago, we were marveling at the ease with which he could record a triple-double and win an MVP award on a middling team. Now, we’re wondering where – if anywhere at all – his style of play makes sense. Perhaps it’s not our job to look in the mirror, but Westbrook’s. If everywhere you go, problems follow, perhaps it’s you that’s the problem, no?
