The Los Angeles Lakers traded away most of their championship core to get Russell Westbrook. It was a risky bet, at least on paper, and it’s evident that it hasn’t paid off the way they expected it to.
Westbrook has often been pointed out and blamed for the team’s shortcomings, which isn’t fair. Now, he’s embracing a solid role leading the second unit, and he looks renewed and with so much more energy.
That’s why, after being shopped around and rumored to be on his way out, it now seems like the Lakers might take a big u-turn and would look to re-sign him next summer, assuming he takes a pay cut.
NBA Rumors: Lakers Could Re-Sign Russell Westbrook Next Season
(Via Heavy’s Sean Deveney)
“No one likes to admit a mistake. Look, they had chances to just dump the guy if they wanted to, but if they did that, if it was an addition-by-subtraction thing, they would be saying, ‘Yeah we really messed up.’ They gave up (Kyle) Kuzma and KCP (Kentavious Caldwell-Pope) for the guy, and you see how much they miss guys who can play their roles, especially KCP. He is exactly what they need. So they have been gun-shy about getting rid of Westbrook because it’s egg on their face if they do.
So it is not crazy that they could sign him, at a much lower number than what he has this year. He is not going to have a market next year, not with all that has gone on in the past two seasons. Can he get a taxpayer midlevel (expected to be $7 million), even? What team is going to give him that right now? So if he stays in L.A. for that kind of contract, yeah that could happen, but it would have to be a very lowball deal.”
Truth be told, there won’t be that much of a market for him next season. He’s aging, and there weren’t any takers in a trade. So, ironically, he might as well finish his career in purple and gold, even though he looked like a lock to leave at any point.