1. Houston Rockets
This is a possibility that we have touched on before here at Lake Show Life earlier in the season when it became clear that Russell Westbrook was not a great fit on the Lakers. It might not be a great return but that is what the Lakers are dealing with at this point in the process. The hope for LA is that they would improve with addition by subtraction.
If the Lakers were to trade Russell Westbrook back to the Houston Rockets we would see a trade happen that has already happened in the NBA. The Lakers would flip Westbrook to Houston for John Wall, who is right up there with Westbrook as having one of the worst contracts in the entire league.
Houston is a bad team and there is no difference between Wall and Westbrook. The Lakers would have to attach some future capital, probably a future second-round pick, to make this happen. While the added pick in the original trade was a first-round pick, Wall is not even playing anymore so it is hard to ask for that.
Wall and Westbrook are on virtually identical contracts and the hope for the Lakers would be that Wall meshes better with LeBron James and Anthony Davis than Westbrook does. While Wall definitely is not the same player he once was, it cannot be much worse than Westbrook currently is.