Lakers Could Have Traded Russell Westbrook Without Outright Giving Up Pick, Not Ready To Give Up On Him
The Los Angeles Lakers had an offer from the Houston Rockets of John Wall for Russell Westbrook that would not have included their 2027 first round pick. The Lakers reportedly were not ready to give up on the idea of the team figuring out to play with Westbrook, and may even be ready to do so heading into next season.
"The way I heard it was it could have been done for a first round pick, but it was even suggested they could have done it for a pick swap," said Ramona Shelburne on The Hoop Collective podcast. "I don't know the details of what that swap could be like, or how that would even work.
"It would have been John Wall for Russell Westbrook and a draft consideration," said Brian Windhorst. "There could have been first rounders moving, but it wouldn't have been losing a first rounder maybe?"
"Let's put it this way," continued Shelburne. "They would have had to incentivize Houston to do the trade with some kind of draft compensation. I think it was even less than what people have assumed.
"But I think the Lakers are not ready to pull the ripcord on that Russell Westbrook experiment. I think they feel like the team, the coach, the coaching staff, everything has not done enough to say this isn't going to work. Russell Westbrook is a future Hall of Famer. There are different ways of being used. And some of this is on Russ too. Russ can still change more too. But I think they feel they gave up so much to get him and he is a really talented player if used correctly. And he has not been used in any kind of way that's he comfortable with, or has been used, or been good before. We can argue forever whose fault that is. I think it's a lot of both. I think both sides take some... And some of it's just reality of playing with LeBron now. It's a different setup than he's ever been in.
"I think they just feel like you can't keep changing all the time. Especially just change for just change sake. That's kind of the phrasing I've heard. Let's not make a change just to make a change. Let's make a change when we know it's going to make us a lot better.
"I've even heard this phrasing of this is probably going to be the roster next year too. Obviously a lot of the minimum contract guys will change, but I think this is what they've got. There was a couple of weird signals I've seen since that. I don't think LeBron has been a situation where he just gets told no, flat out, very often."
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, Khareem Sudlow
