The Los Angeles Lakers should look different when the 2022-23 season starts compared to how they look now — at least, that is what fans hope. Los Angeles currently is not constructed like a title-contending team and trading Russell Westbrook is imperative to increasing those title odds.
That being said, trading Westbrook obviously is not a very easy thing to do. As it stands right now, there are two potential paths the Lakers can take with Westbrook; one with the New York Knicks and Utah Jazz and another with the Indiana Pacers.
The problem is that RJ Barrett’s extension makes the New York/Utah path less likely for the Lakers and the team may have already ruined its shot at making a trade with the Pacers.
There is a reality in which Los Angeles heads into the season with Russell Westbrook as the starting point guard. That would create an interesting dynamic with recently-traded for Patrick Beverley, who has had an interesting past with the former MVP.
Not only have the two reportedly spoken to potentially hash out any issues, but Lakers head coach Darvin Ham is preparing to potentially utilize both players on the court together, according to NBA insider Marc Stein.
Russell Westbrook and Patrick Beverley have already been in contact since becoming Lakers teammates, league sources tell me, and new coach Darvin Ham has told them he has lineups in mind to play Russ and PatBev side-by-side.
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) August 30, 2022
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A Patrick Beverley-Russell Westbrook lineup would be horrible for the Los Angeles Lakers.
The hope is that Darvin Ham can be an improvement from Frank Vogel for the Los Angeles Lakers but if he is seriously considering utilizing these two players next to each other then fans may already have their concerns.
Is it terrible for some of the minutes to overlap with each other? Not at all. But if Ham is carving out a lineup that has both point guards on the floor together for long periods of time it is not going to yield the result he is looking for.
In theory, this could work with Westbrook almost operating as a point-center, similar to how he did with the Houston Rockets. The team could then put Beverley in the backcourt to make this happen.
That simply has too many problems.
First of all, you cannot run a traditional big in this lineup as the floor spacing will be awful. Beverley is a fine three-point shooter but he is far from a marksman and him being the best option would not be great. If you have a traditional center like Thomas Bryant or Damian Jones out there it is going to be an issue.
You also can’t really have LeBron James out there either. This dynamic would not work with LeBron on the court because of his usage rate. Sure, LeBron is doing less and less facilitating, but having two point guards, one of which can’t really shoot, on the floor with LBJ is silly.
Anthony Davis can be on the floor and he is going to have to play defensive center and offensive power forward. That could work, but the problem is that the Lakers don’t really have anyone else to space the floor. This team lacks shooters and if they are running a lineup of Westbrook, Beverley, Lonnie Walker, Juan Toscano-Anderson and Davis they are just going to get cooked.
Jeanie Buss foreshadows a Russell Westbrook trade for the Lakers
It is pretty obvious that the Los Angeles Lakers want to trade Russell Westbrook and Jeanie Buss continued to foreshadow that.
Defensively they lack any playmakers outside of AD and Beverley and offensively they lack the shooters to space the floor. Everything will get clogged up and we will see more of the same offensive issues as Russ tries to play hero ball.