The Los Angeles Lakers have a bit of momentum after starting the season with an 0-5 record. Darvin Ham moved Russell Westbrook to the bench and the results have followed with two straight promising wins against the Denver Nuggets and New Orleans Pelicans.
While promising, it should not distract from the fact that this team still has a better chance of reaching its ceiling if Westbrook is traded at some point in the year. If he can help keep the team afloat right now that is great but they are not winning more than one playoff series with him in LA.
Trading Westbrook has been very troublesome for the Lakers but that might change as the season goes along. There are several teams who are better off tanking for Victor Wembanyama that are winning more games than expected early on.
With Adam Silver issuing a warning to outright tanking, these teams cannot just sit their talented payers. Instead, they might be better off shipping them to LA for Westbrook and purposefully taking on less in return just so they have a better chance at Wembanyama.
Here are 3 teams that might start calling the Lakers for a Russell Westbrook trade:
1. San Antonio Spurs
The San Antonio Spurs have a 5-3 record at the time of writing this and are playing far better early on than anyone expected them to play. Not only does the team have a winning record but they have beaten some quality teams as well. San Antonio has wins over the 76ers, Timberwolves (twice) and Bulls.
However, Wednesday’s 143-100 loss shows that this still isn’t a team that is going to consistently compete and they should be aiming for a top pick in the 2022-23 draft. Gregg Popovich is never going to intentionally lose, so giving him someone like Westbrook just so they can buy him out by be the best path.
There is already an easy trade to make that has been talked about before for Doug McDermott and Josh Richardson, two players who would give LA three-point shooting. It would also give the team a big enough trade exception to make a separate deal for Myles Turner.
Who knows, if the Spurs keep winning perhaps they are willing to make this trade for just one first-round pick. It probably won’t get cheaper than that since they are taking on more money in the deal.
2. Utah Jazz
Danny Ainge blew up the Utah Jazz in the offseason and it made a lot of sense to do so. While it is nice making the playoffs, Ainge recognized that the core of Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert was not going to win a championship anytime soon.
Instead of keeping that core together for another few years just to keep losing in the second round before Mitchell eventually leaves in free agency, Ainge decided to get maximum value for his stars and get the small-market Jazz under the salary cap.
They not only got a lot of future assets to add more talent but they got the chance to tank for the best NBA prospect since LeBron James. The only problem is that this roster had too much depth and the role players have really stepped up to the tune of a 6-3 record.
This is definitely not what Ainge had in mind and if the Jazz continue to win then the price for trading Westbrook will go down. Suddenly, any future salary-cap space and the fact that they will become a worse team will be valuable to the Jazz.
Los Angeles can absolutely get the price down to one first-round pick if Utah keeps winning. Heck, if it gets so bad for the Jazz then the Lakers might be able to do it for just a pick swap since they would be the ones doing the Jazz a favor.
3. Miami Heat
This might sound like a crazy idea but there is absolutely a path in which the Miami Heat are the ones picking up the phone to call about a Russell Westbrook trade. Miami has not gotten off to the kind of start that it was hoping for and might be looking for an out as it pertains to Kyle Lowry.
Miami is 4-5 this season and really has not played the kind of basketball that the team is capable of. Perhaps the most disappointing facet of the team’s season thus far is Kyle Lowry, who was already regressing last season and has taken a huge step back this season.
Lowry has another season under contract and the Heat very well could view him as a sunk cost. Since Miami is always a destination, it might suit the team better to take on a contract that is expiring, like Westbrook’s, and simply part ways with Lowry this season.
The pitch to the Lakers would be simple: save some money on the books with Lowry ($28.3 million cap hit this season) while getting a potential all-star point guard in return. To make the deal happen financially, Victor Oladipo and Gave Vincent would have to be included.
In this trade, Miami might not even ask for an unprotected first in return. The team could allow the Lakers to add top-five protections on the pick knowing they are getting value out of getting off of Lowry’s contract.
Lakers’ LeBron James sends most ironic tweet of the year to Kyle Kuzma
Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James loves to tweet and he sent perhaps the most ironic tweet of the entire year to Kyle Kuzma.
This is something that the Lakers have to resist, as it would be bad for the long-term future of the team as the Westbrook issues would just roll over into next year with Lowry. But with how this team operates, I am not confident that they would say no.