The Los Angeles Lakers are looking to shake things up before the NBA trade deadline as the team has been extremely disappointing thus far and in its current construction, would be lucky to get out of the Play-In Tournament, let alone make the NBA Finals.
The team is restricted in what it can do, however, because of Russell Westbrook. Westbrook has the second-worst contract in the league (only behind John Wall, who is only worse because he doesn’t actually play) and the Lakers do not have many assets to trade.
There are still some opportunities for the Lakers to explore and perhaps they look for players who are familiar with playing with Russell Westbrook. The team is not going to get off of his contract so it might as well bring in players who know what it is like to play with him.
There are four former Russell Westbrook teammates that the Los Angeles Lakers could realistically trade for.
No, one of the four teammates is not Jerami Grant, who played with Westbrook on the OKC Thunder. The Pistons have already rejected the best offer that the Lakers could send them, so he is off the table.
While the Pistons said no to Grant, there are four players whose teams could say yes at the right price. Let’s dive into them.