The Los Angeles Lakers are trying to offload Russell Westbrook by any means necessary this offseason. It seemed like the team was destined for a Kyrie Irving trade but as trade talks there have stalled, the optimism around a deal has waned.
There are other routes that the Lakers could take, including lumping themselves into a bigger trade involving a different all-star guard. Los Angeles could include themselves in a potential Donovan Mitchell trade to the New York Knicks.
League sources told Marc Stein during Summer League in Las Vegas that he should keep an eye on the Knicks and Lakers working on a Westbrook deal if New York can bring Mitchell to town. That instantly got many people thinking that New York would take on Russ to run a three-guard lineup of Westbrook, Mitchell and Jalen Brunson.
That is not at all what the Knicks would be doing as they would be worse off with Westbrook playing in Madison Square Garden. Instead, the Knicks working with the Lakers and getting Westbrook involved can help the team facilitate a trade with the Jazz.
A realistic Russell Westbrook trade package that involves the New York Knicks:
Los Angeles Lakers receive: Julius Randle, Derrick Rose, Evan Fournier
Utah Jazz receive: Russell Westbrook, Talen Horton-Tucker, Detroit 2023 first-round pick, Washington 2023 first-round pick, Knicks 2024, 2026, 2028 first-round picks, 2027 first-round pick swap
New York Knicks receive: Donovan Mitchell, Bojan Bogdanovic, Lakers future second-round pick
There are a lot of moving pieces in this trade and most notably, the Lakers are not shipping out a first-round pick in this deal. This is a lot to take in, so on the following pages, we will break down why the Los Angeles Lakers could say yes to this trade as well as both the Utah Jazz and New York Knicks.
Why the Los Angeles Lakers could say yes:
There are two big pros in making this trade for the Los Angeles Lakers and they are both quite obvious. The team gets to move off of Russell Westbrook while also getting to do so without trading a first-round pick.
The question then becomes if the pros outweigh the cons for the team. The cons of this deal include the contracts that the team is taking on in return. There is a reasonable fear that Julius Randle is on a bad contract with how he played last season and with it being for four more seasons.
While last season was not promising, let’s not forget that Randle was an All-NBA guy just a season ago and last season was a wonky one in general for the Knicks. With Randle having someone who can run the offense in LeBron James, he should get better looks and if he accepts the role, could be a great third star next to Anthony Davis and LeBron.
The team has enough size to run a Randle-Davis frontcourt with LeBron, Fournier and a defensive-minded point guard (perhaps if Patrick Beverley gets bought out or is even included in this trade).
Fournier is coming off of a bad season but is still a great shooter at his core and the Lakers don’t have any shooting. Derrick Rose is a great point guard to bring off the bench in the Rajon Rondo role, especially as the Lakers look to limit LeBron’s workload in the end.
Yes, there is a chance that the contract could get bad, but the Lakers could flip it in the future if needed. Plus, if the team extends LeBron it is not going to have cap space to sign an all-star-caliber player next offseason anyway. Sure, they will have slightly more money for role players but that is about it.
Oh, and add in the fact that LA saves $1 million this season and it seems like a lock for the team.
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.
3 Lakers Summer League players who earned a bigger role in the rotation
Los Angeles Lakers Summer League action is in the books and these three players earned bigger roles in the NBA rotation with their play.
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.