Lakers Russell Westbrook gets roasted by potential future Spurs teammate
By Jason Reed
The main goal for the Los Angeles Lakers this offseason is to trade Russell Westbrook. Luckily for LA, the basketball stars have aligned as the team could potentially trade Westbrook for fellow point guard Kyrie Irving.
There are a lot of moving parts in a potential Westbrook-Irving trade that has put trade discussions on ice. While there are growing reports that Kyrie might stay in Brooklyn, it still feels like the Lakers trading for him is inevitable. It might just be a manner of how they acquire him.
One potential way for the Lakers to acquire Irving for Westbrook is looping in a third team like the San Antonio Spurs. A trade involving the Spurs is reportedly the closest to being done and would include San Antonio absorbing Westbrook’s salary for draft compensation.
It is widely accepted that the Spurs would buy out Westbrook to save some more money but you never know. San Antonio wants to tank this season and Westbrook is not really a winning basketball player, so he might help in that regard.
If he does stay in San Antonio things might be a bit awkward, though. Spurs rookie Jeremy Sochan recently roasted Westbrook in a game of heads up with teammate Malaki Branham. When prompted with the hint “Russell Westbrook gets a lot of these” Sochan only had one word to say… bricks.
Russell Westbrook will definitely have a word with Jeremy Sochan if the Lakers trade him to the Spurs.
Russell Westbrook has expressed his issues with the “Westbrick” nickname that has emerged after this last season and quite frankly, the former MVP is completely justified in not wanting to be called that name. While criticism comes with being a pro athlete, if someone does not want his family’s name to be messed with we should respect that.
That being said, Sochan did not say this nickname, he simply alluded to the fact that Westbrook does not make many shots. And to Sochan’s credit, he’s not wrong. Westbrook shot 44.4% from the field and 29.8% from three despite taking 3.4 threes a game.
Fun fact about Westbrook’s shooting: while last season did not qualify, Westbrook is the only player in NBA history to have three seasons in which he shot under 30% from three while attempting 300 or more threes. Typically players realize when they can’t shoot, not Westbrook.
In fact, of the 114 players in NBA history to attempt at least 3,000 threes in their career, Westbrook ranks dead-last in three-point percentage at 30.5%. Westbrook does miss a lot of shots, after all.