The Los Angeles Lakers made a blockbuster trade with the Washington Wizards last summer by acquiring the services of point guard Russell Westbrook. The move, however, drew a lot of different opinions.
A number of LA fans felt excited ahead of this season, while the feeling around the NBA was that the Lakers were building a title-contending roster. But many others were skeptical about his connection with LeBron James.
And his slow start in LA helped little to change those pessimistic opinions. However, the Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka has recently spoken about that trade, explaining why they went after the nine-time NBA All-Star.
Lakers GM Rob Pelinka reveals the truth behind the trade for Westbrook
“I think in kind of building the roster in the offseason, obviously we made a big trade for Russell Westbrook to get another playmaker..." Pelinka said in the latest episode of Backstage Lakers of Spectrum SportsNet, as quoted by SB Nation's Silver Screen and Roll.
"We knew that as LeBron journeyed towards Year 19 in the league and then Year 20, we couldn’t rely on him as the sole engine for our team, so we made that trade really wanting to dimensionalize the roster with a combination of versatility, guys that could shoot and also defenders.
“The way this season started, with Talen being out for a couple months, we still haven’t had Trevor Ariza play and Kendrick Nunn hasn’t played in a game yet... Those were all players that we saw in our top eight, and so getting them healthy and back will really I think be critical in us being able analyze how the puzzle fits together once we have the whole team.”
In short, the Lakers traded for Westbrook in an attempt to distribute the creative responsability that had almost entirely relied on LeBron James for a long time. It's too soon to tell if they did the right thing or not, but the Lakers are still heavily relying on The King as he's averaging 37.0 minutes per game, his highest since the 2016/17 season.
