Pro: More Attractive Free Agent Destination Immediately…
Admittedly, I find this argument to be overblown in many cases when you talk about free agency decisions. There’s much more that a free agent considers when he’s trying to figure out where the next stage of his career will take him besides, “hey, this team has a really good point guard—I think I’ll sign there.” However, it’d be asinine to say that isn’t part of the equation and that the arrival of Westbrook in Los Angeles wouldn’t help with another major part of the equation as well.
When you look at the free agency decisions of players like Durant, Hassan Whiteside, Al Horford, and so on from this past year, they were truly only giving real consideration to teams that were in the playoff hunt. Of course, that would be why the Lakers weren’t on the list of teams to receive a meeting or call with many of those high-caliber free agents. However, bringing a player like Russ into the fold improves the team to a point where they might not be title-contenders with just him, but could be with him and another top-end player.
So in trading for Westbrook, the Lakers would immediately at least be able to get into the room with the big-names hitting the open market in free agency. That’s a major step forward for the organization and something that could really put them on the fast-track to being in contention for a championship. Of course…
Next: Con No. 3