Why The San Antonio Spurs Make The Trade
We’ve already outlined the San Antonio Spurs’ interest in this trade. It’s simple. They’re landing an expiring contract and a first-round pick.
If they made this move, they’d officially be entering into a rebuilding phase. It feels unlikely that they’d play Westbrook. The organization could either buy him out or sit him for a season while his contract runs out.
A lot of fans don’t like that course of action. It’s understandable: fans pay to watch players play, not sit on the bench. Still, when the goals of a player and a front office don’t align, it can be the lesser of evils. That’s likely to be the case if Westbrook lands in San Antonio.
With a buyout, he’ll at least be able to find a home elsewhere. He may be looking at a transition into a reserve role, whether he likes it or not. We’ll see Russell Westbrook play NBA basketball again, but it’s unlikely to be in a Spurs jersey. If the Lakers’ front office has their way, it won’t be in the purple-and-gold either.
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The Spurs do have more incentive to consider this trade after the NBA Draft when considering they added two additional guards into the fold in Malaki Branham and Blake Wesley. If they want to clear playing time for them, they could accomplish that here while gaining a valuable future draft asset.
