The biggest storyline surrounding the Los Angeles Lakers dating back to the end of last season has been a potential Russell Westbrook trade. Los Angeles quickly regretted the initial trade for Westbrook and after such a disappointing year, a Russ trade seemed inevitable.
However, despite all of the rumors and speculation, the Lakers did not pull the trigger on a trade and rolled into the season with Westbrook on the roster. They still managed to make it awkward by signing Dennis Schroder, who they were reportedly waiting to sign until they traded Westbrook.
While the team has options and more teams might be added as potential trade candidates, it does not seem like a Westbrook trade is going to be in the cards this season. Unless some incredible deal becomes available that seems impossible right now, fans should expect Westbrook to stay all season in LA.
Here are 3 reasons why the Lakers won’t trade Russell Westbrook (barring a crazy change):
1. Russell Westbrook has been reinvented thus far this season
As one of Westbrook’s biggest critics myself, I must admit that the former point guard has really found a nice role on this team off the bench. Los Angeles definitely needed a shot in the arm on the bench and Westbrook has played the best basketball of his Lakers tenure since the move.
Now, there are a few things to keep in mind. The first is that this is a small sample size and that there is no guarantee that this will last forever. However, as long as the team keeps this same structure and allows Russ to be Russ in smaller moments, it will be fine.
The team has to refuse the desire to start playing him more and move him back into the starting lineup. That defeats the entire purpose of this role and the team would just be going back to square one.
Keep him from playing in crunch time (regardless of how upset he gets about it) and allow him to be a new, better version of bench Rajon Rondo for this team. If he has a problem with it, then the team can address a trade.
2. The Los Angeles Lakers aren’t good enough to make a Russell Westbrook trade
This is the sad reality of the situation and might be the hardest for fans to accept. Let’s say Westbrook doesn’t buy into his bench role and after awhile he starts to let it be known that he is unhappy in Los Angeles.
Even if that happens and his solid play resorts back to how he was playing before, the Lakers don’t really have much incentive to make a trade. It was different in the offseason when there was an entire season in front of them and we didn’t know what to expect.
Now, seeing this team play over 10% of its games this season, it is clear that it simply is not talented enough to make a Westbrook trade. It would actually be a bad thing in the big picture to trade Westbrook and the assets it would take along with him for a marginal improvement.
At the time of writing this, the Lakers are a 2-7 basketball team that quite frankly should be a 1-8 team if Dyson Daniels simply made one free throw. Adding Myles Turner and Buddy Hield, or whatever the package would end up being, would not do anything.
Sure, it would make the Lakers better, but it would simply turn them from a play-in team into being a sixth seed at best. Even in the best-case scenario, one playoff series win seems like the ceiling for this Lakers team.
It would be different if the team around Westbrook was good enough to make a run if they got a decent return for him. They simply aren’t.
3. The Lakers not having their first-round pick in 2023 will make the front office stingy with the future picks
Rob Pelinka and the front office have already been stingy with their future first-round picks that they have to trade despite having more future picks than are advertised. The fact that the team does not have its first-round pick in the same year where the biggest prospect since LeBron James is in the draft will be a firm reminder to Pelinka to keep his picks.
Los Angeles will still have a first-round pick in the 2023 NBA Draft but it will be a swap with the New Orleans Pelicans, giving the Lakers the worse of the two picks. Every game the Lakers lose down the stretch to increase their no. 1 pick odds for the Pelicans will be a painful reminder for LA.
This is not the Lakers’ fault and the team shouldn’t regret trading this pick. They traded it for Anthony Davis and they won a championship in a run where Davis was the best player on the planet for six weeks. It is just unfortunate with how the window lined up with Wembanyama coming into the league.
It isn’t regret that is going to fuel the Lakers to be stingy with their future picks; it is fear. Missing out on Wembanyama will be a firm reminder that the team cannot sell its future, especially if it is not guaranteeing a championship like the AD trade essentially did.
3 former Lakers that LA could trade for during the season
The Los Angeles Lakers have reunited with former players in the recent past and they could look to do that again with these potential trade targets.
Hopefully, the team can put together at least a play-in run that way the Pelicans don’t get one of two generational prospects. That would be awful PR for LA