3 things the Los Angeles Lakers must do as soon as the season ends

3. Operation get Russell Westbrook out of LA

The Los Angeles Lakers will not be successful next season if Russell Westbrook is still on the team, period. Westbrook is an awful fit next to LeBron James and Anthony Davis and his contract seriously restricts the depth that the team can fill out the roster with.

The biggest goal this offseason should be to move off of Westbrook and the first thing the team should be doing is getting that process in motion. There is a very simple first step that the Lakers should take in this operation.

First off, the Lakers should go to Westbrook and tell him that they will not play him at all next season if he opts into his player option. Will Westbrook turn down $47 million? Probably not. But Westbrook does seem to have an ego about his ability and according to him, just loves to play basketball. His agents will convince him otherwise but it would not be the most shocking thing in the world if he opted out of his deal thinking he could get a nice deal somewhere where he could actually play.

Spoiler alert: he won’t get that deal.

The next step is to start calling around and see what kind of salary-dump trades the Lakers can try to make with assets attached. A trade with the New York Knicks seemed like the perfect thing for LA but recent reports indicate that the Knicks are not interested at all in Westbrook.

Whether it is getting him to somehow opt out of his deal or trading him, the Lakers need to apply the full-court press on Westbrook to get him out of LA. If they cannot get Westbrook off the team then this offseason will be a failure.