The Los Angeles Lakers gave away the depth of a championship-winning core to land Russell Westbrook. The move drew contrasting takes around the NBA, but most people thought they were making a huge mistake.
The preseason was just a glimpse of what was to come. Westbrook had the worst season of his career, the team was a disaster from start to finish, and now they’re stuck with a player who’s not even enjoying his time back home.
And, while trading him would be a no-brainer decision, there’s only so much they can do with that massive contract. In reality, only the Houston Rockets have shown the slightest interest in taking that bullet.
NBA Trade Rumors: Houston Rockets Still Want To Trade For Russell Westbrook
The Rockets were willing to land Westbrook just to offload John Wall, who didn’t agree to a contract buyout. However, the Lakers didn’t want to trade away a first-round pick just to get rid of Westbrook. Even so, the Rockets haven’t changed their mind,and the offer still stands:
“There’s considerable reporting that Pelinka has a standing offer to send Westbrook to the Houston Rockets for John Wall’s nearly-matching contract. The catch? LA will have to surrender one of the two tradable first round picks (in 2026, 2027 or 2028) they have left. The real question: Can the Lakers do better in a trade?”reported Keith Smith of Spotrac.
Lakers Will Only Trade Westbrook Under Certain Conditions
But Rob Pelinka knows better than to lose a trade just for the sake of it. According to Bill Oram of The Athletic, the only way the Lakers trade Westbrook is if they get some leverage back and drive his trade value up:
“The only way for the Lakers to stop digging their hole deeper is to find their way into a position of strength,” wrote Oram.“And the only way they can do that is to convince the rest of the league that they are not as desperate to trade Westbrook as everyone believes. That they are content to bring him back for another season and give their big three another chance.”
A Buyout Isn’t Off The Table
Driving Westbrook’s value up looks like an impossible task at this point. So, if the Lakers can’t trade him or buy him out, Keith Smith claims they could even waive him. Whatever it takes just to get him off the team:
“If the Lakers can’t trade Westbrook, there will be at least cursory buyout discussions. The challenge for LA is that he’s unlikely to give back anything approaching a substantial amount via a buyout,” Smith wrote.
“If the Lakers and Westbrook can’t reach agreement on a buyout, they may straight waive him. It’s unlikely things get to this point, as they’d rather have him as a massive salary-matching trade piece than simply dead money, but stranger things have happened,” Smith added. “One thing the Lakers absolutely should avoid is waiving and stretching Westbrook. They could lower his cap hit from $47.1 million for 2022-23 to $15.7 million by stretching Westbrook’s dead money. That’s a savings of $31.4 million for this upcoming season. That would get the Lakers out of the tax and give them the ability to use the Non-Taxpayer MLE.”
All things considered, this is the best-case scenario for Westbrook. While it would undoubtedly hurt his ego, he’d get the chance to get a fresh start on a team-friendly deal somewhere else. Of course, the Lakers would have to pay up, but at least they’d get some financial flexibility.
