The San Antonio Spurs dropped the first big hammer of the NBA offseason on Wednesday as the team has traded Dejounte Murray to the Atlanta Hawks for Danilo Gallinari and three future first-round picks. The Los Angeles Lakers should be monitoring this, as it creates a new potential suitor for Russell Westbrook.
San Antonio’s logic behind this trade is interesting. Murray still had two more years under contract and was one of the most affordable young stars in the league. The Spurs did not even get a young asset in return, as Gallinari is simply an expiring veteran contract. All the Spurs got was picks.
That seems to signal that a rebuild is in the works in San Antonio and that the team is going to commit to tanking next season. To be fair, the Spurs are probably better off tanking for Victor Wembanyama next season rather than competing for the 10th spot in the Western Conference.
And if the Spurs truly are tanking it opens the door for the Lakers to potentially trade Russell Westbrook in a salary-dump deal. Granted, the Lakers would have to trade a future first-round pick, which is something the team reportedly does not want to do.
However, this could simply be a game of chicken between the Lakers and the rest of the league. When push comes to shove, LA trading a first is not completely out of the picture.
What a Lakers-Spurs trade for Russell Westbrook would look like:
The Spurs would likely just end up buying Russell Westbrook out to save money as soon as this trade happened. There is the chance that Westbrook gets stubborn and let’s his basketball ego get in the way of a buyout, but in that case, the Spurs would simply tell him to go home.
This would be a full commitment to tanking by the Spurs and would allow the team to give playing time to the young players on the roster that need to develop. They also get a potentially really good asset in return from the Lakers simply for making their tanking situation even better.
Meanwhile, the Lakers do not get anything super exciting in return but the important thing is that they get depth for Westbrook. The trio of Gallinari, Richardson and Poeltl all make sense in LA. Gallinari is the floor spacing power forward that the team needs, Richardson is a three and D guy that can be the new Kentavios Caldwell-Pope and Poeltl is a quality big man who can start at the five.
Ironically enough, this is essentially undoing the previous Westbrook trade. Gallinari replaces Kyle Kuzma, Richardson replaces KCP and Poeltl replaces Montrezl Harrell.
This is a much better salary-dump package for the Lakers than trading with a team like the Charlotte Hornets or New York Knicks. In those situations, the Lakers would be taking on multi-year contracts that could hinder them in the future. All three of these contracts are expiring contracts, allowing the Lakers to actually be flexible next offseason in what they spend on.
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The Los Angeles Lakers have several free agents this offseason. Here is where we think each free agent will end up landing this summer.
This would be a massive win for the Los Angeles Lakers and if the Spurs are willing to take this trade with one first-round pick attached then Rob Pelinka needs to stop being stubborn and simply make the trade happen.