Lakers: Breaking down a potential Russell Westbrook to Miami trade
By Jason Reed
Why the Los Angeles Lakers could say yes:
The foundational reason why the Los Angeles Lakers would say yes to this trade is really quite clear. Los Angeles had several problems last season that resulted in one of the most disappointing seasons in franchise history and most of those problems stem from Russell Westbrook.
Some of those problems are Westbrook’s fault, such as his insistence to play his brand of basketball and not morphing into what the Lakers need him to be. Some of those problems are not necessarily his fault. It is not Westbrook’s fault that the Lakers traded for a massive contract and couldn’t then add proper depth.
This trade gets rid of Westbrook and adds two players who, on paper, would fit nicely in LA. The Heat definitely have their reasons to trade Kyle Lowry and Duncan Robinson (which we will explore), with the Lakers being more likely to take the chance and bet on the upside of both players.
The upside of Lowry is that the Lakers could get an actual real point guard to help run the offense. Granted, that is not typically needed with LeBron James but James is getting older and needs to do less of the every day facilitating on the Lakers. We have already seen LeBron transition into more of a shooter later in his career.
At his best, Duncan Robinson could be an elite off-ball catch-and-shoot role player next to LeBron. Robinson plays bad defense and he has struggled in Miami but if there is anyone who elevates catch-and-shoot role players it is LeBron. Robinson is still young and the Lakers would essentially be betting that they can fix whatever was wrong with him last season.
The Lakers would be getting two rotational players who would average well over 25 minutes per game in the regular season and could both become hugely important role players in the postseason if they can turn it around. For the price of Westbrook, that is great.