1. Trading for Russell Westbrook
Well, duh.
The Russell Westbrook trade has been a disaster for the Los Angeles Lakers and I do not even blame Westbrook. Has Westbrook been less than optimal on this team? Yes. Is he a bad offensive fit while being a horrible defender? Yes. Is he criminally overpaid? Absolutely.
However, none of those things are surprises and they were not surprises before the Lakers traded for him. Seemingly every other NBA team in the league knew all of these things about Westbrook except the Lakers. It is not Westbrook’s fault that he secured the bag from OKC. It is the Lakers fault for making the worst trade in recent NBA memory for him.
Seriously, what was Rob Pelinka thinking? The best-case scenario of this trade was for Westbrook to raise the regular-season floor by taking some of the pressure off of LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Then, in the playoffs, the team would utilize Westbrook less and lean heavily on LeBron and AD.
Guess what? They could have still leaned heavily on LeBron and AD in the postseason without Westbrook being here. You know what helps LeBron and AD rest in the regular season? Actually having good depth. What don’t the Lakers have because of Westbrook’s massive salary? Good depth!
There were multiple better situations for the Lakers in the offseason (hi, DeMar DeRozan!) and simply not trading for Westbrook and keeping those assets would have been better as it would have given the team flexibility. That is something they do not have and is why THT has been so mishandled as an asset.
And the worst part is that this will be the problem next year unless the Lakers can somehow attach multiple picks to Westbrook and trade him to a bad team. LeBron is getting older. The team had a two, maybe three-year title window left before this season with LeBron and AD.
Trading for Russell Westbrook completely closed the window for two of those years and could send the Lakers back into the dark ages.