A realistic Russell Westbrook trade with the Knicks the Lakers can offer
By Jason Reed
Why the New York Knicks could say yes:
This is more so about why the Utah Jazz could say yes but the Knicks do have a reason to loop in the Lakers. Either way, the team is going to have to pay a bunch of draft capital for Mitchell and is going to have to send salary in return. By doing it this way, the Knicks could potentially avoid having to trade R.J. Barrett instead of someone like Derrick Rose.
If the Jazz are taking on these contracts from the Knicks they are going to ask for some kind of compensation player-wise as the Jazz would be taking on multi-year deals. Instead, the this gives Utah an expiring and a young player, keeping Barrett in New York.
This trade also gets them a fantastic role player on an expiring in Bojan Bogdanovic to replace some of Randle’s minutes.
Why the Utah Jazz could say yes:
This is actually better for the Utah Jazz as well. New York is the team that can send the most draft picks to Utah and this trade maximizes the return. Why? Utah does not need to take on the multi-year deals as the Lakers are instead taking on that salary.
Those contracts have no use to the Jazz as they want to tank. Are they really going to buy out multiple years of a contract and carry that cap hit? Absolutely not. Instead, the Jazz can funnel these contracts that most teams don’t want to the Lakers, who have the perfect expiring for Utah to bring in and promptly buy out.
Since the Lakers are doing both the Jazz and Knicks a favor by taking on the multi-year deals, they get away with not including a first and the Jazz should be fine with that. After all, they are getting a boatload of draft capital from New York.
While a lot needs to happen for this trade to become a reality, it does feel like this kind of deal centered around Westbrook, Mitchell and Randle has serious legs.