It is no secret that the Russell Westbrook trade has not been working out for the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers are barely a .500 basketball team and most of the problems that this team has stems from the fact that they traded for Westbrook.
Nearly every Laker fan is on the same page that this is an awful trade for the Lakers. However, I am going a step further. Because of the nature of this trade and just how big it is, it is already safe to say that this is the worst trade in Lakers history.
Am I worried about this coming back to bite me if the Lakers figure it out and win with Westbrook? No. That won’t happen. Let’s break down the reasoning.
1. The players that the Los Angeles Lakers traded are all doing great!
Russell Westbrook continues his regression as a former superstar that still thinks he is a superstar while all of the players that the Los Angeles Lakers traded are having great years.
Overall, Kyle Kuzma has been more of the same for the Washington Wizards but he has played really well over the last few weeks and he may have turned a corner. As frustrating as he was on the Lakers, the team could really use his presence on the wing this season.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is doing more of the same but that would still be great for the Lakers. He is a reliable perimeter defender who shot over 40% from beyond the arc for the Lakers last season. He has continued to fit in that player mold, which is a mold that the Lakers desperately lack.
Finally, Montrezl Harrell is having a career year with the Wizards. His fit with the Lakers would have still been a bit wonky, but with the team committing to a small-ball lineup this season, they easily could have played Harrell in this rotation.
He definitely would have been better than DeAndre Jordan and Dwight Howard.
2. Russell Westbrook is an extremely expensive player that does not fit on the Los Angeles Lakers
This reason is two-fold. First, we are going to talk about the thing that was very obvious when the team traded for him: he does not fit well on the Los Angeles Lakers.
Russell Westbrook is a ball-dominant player who is at his best when he can control the game. However, at this point in his career, he is not all that great in that role with his inefficiencies. LeBron James is also ball dominant but is still actually an all-star player and he is obviously going to run the offense.
Not only does this not allow Westbrook to do what he wants (remember, he is a stubborn player) but the floor spacing impact Westbrook has is atrocious for the team. Remember before Anthony Davis got hurt and he was the worst jump-shooter in the league? Want to know why? Russell Westbrook. Davis was forced to operate out of the paint and space the floor.
Then we can talk about the money. Westbrook is making $44 million this season and $47 million next season. This is horrible for three reasons. First, he is criminally underpaid. He is the value of a rotational MLE player and he is one of the highest-paid players in the league.
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Second, he kept the team from retaining valuable assets and hurt the depth. The Westbrook trade put the Lakers in the luxury tax and as a result, they had to let Alex Caruso walk to avoid a big tax bill and had to exclusively sign veteran minimum guys. Wonder why the depth is bad?
Third, there are absolutely no outs. If the Lakers traded for an expiring Westbrook contract we could at least remind ourselves that this is a one-year issue and that it will be resolved. It isn’t. Westbrook is under contract next season and the same problems that exist now will exist next year.
Every year of the window is massively important with LeBron James’ age. The Lakers may have just wasted two of those years.
3. The Los Angeles Lakers didn’t HAVE to make this risky of a trade
Sometimes an NBA team is in a situation where they have to throw a hail mary and hope something works. They very rarely do work, but time and time again we will see a team that is at the end of their perceived title window and says screw it, let’s make a bold move and hope it works.
An example of this actually working is the Kawhi Leonard trade with the Toronto Raptors. That was an extremely risky move to trade for one year of Kawhi but the Raptors had no real other way to win a title. They weren’t going to win with DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry and they weren’t going to sign another star.
This was not the case with the Los Angeles Lakers. They did not have to take a risk. The team was bounced in the first round of the playoffs last year because of injuries and somehow Rob Pelinka convinced himself that he needed to trade for Westbrook.
In reality, Anthony Davis and LeBron James are still the hardest twosomes to beat in the NBA when they are both healthy and playing at their best. The Lakers did not need a “third star” they just needed a supporting cast.
There were so many other things the Lakers could have done. They could have kept the core and made small MLE signings and some of the minimum guys they signed this year (Malik Monk). They could have made several smaller trades to improve the roster as a whole. They could have packaged Harrell and Kuzma for Buddy Hield, kept Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and been able to afford re-signing Alex Caruso.
There were so many other routes the Los Angeles Lakers could have taken and they managed to take the worst route possible. The Lakers were a legitimate title contender and one trade turned them from a team that could have won the West the next two years to a team that might not win a playoff series in the next two years.
I am confident in saying that it cost the team that much, making the Russell Westbrook trade the worst in franchise history. Find a trade that has cost them more.