Last summer, the Lakers appeared to be on the verge of a deal with the Kings for Buddy Hield before pivoting and acquiring Russell Westbrook from Washington. Westbrook’s stint in Los Angeles hasn’t worked out like the Lakers have hoped, which apparently prompted the team to see if it could get a do-over of sorts on that offseason decision.
According to Sam Amick of The Athletic, sources say that one Westbrook trade idea the Lakers discussed earlier in the season would’ve involved Hield coming to Los Angeles. Obviously, that idea didn’t get off the ground — Westbrook ultimately remained in L.A. through the deadline, while Hield was sent to Indiana in a six-player blockbuster.
Here’s more on the Lakers:
- As we relayed on Thursday, Lakers VP of basketball operations Rob Pelinka said he had conversations with LeBron James and Anthony Davis leading up to the trade deadline, suggesting there was “alignment” with the stars on the team’s decision to stand pat. However, a source familiar with James’ and Davis’ thinking who spoke to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin disputed that characterization. “Totally false,” that source told McMenamin (video link; hat tip to RealGM). “There was no conversation between Rob Pelinka, LeBron James and Anthony Davis on Thursday. There was no go-ahead of an OK to have inaction at the deadline.”
- In a column on the Lakers’ trade deadline activity, Bill Oram of The Athletic suggests that rival teams may be leery of engaging in discussions with Pelinka due to his decision to pull out of what the Kings viewed as a trade agreement for Hield last summer.
- As the Lakers peruse the buyout market in search of a player who could improve their roster, center DeAndre Jordan appears to be the most likely candidate to be waived, says Jovan Buha of The Athletic. Jordan is out of the team’s regular rotation and isn’t a fit with the Lakers’ “small-ball ethos,” Buha explains.
LeBron and AD would never agree with team’s decision to stand pat.
Next year salary
$145 million for 5 players (stars, Tucker and Nunn)
you said it .. they had no contracts to match in a trade .
THT has a wee bit of value, but without a 10+mil guy attached, you’re not going to find a rotation player making that in return.
trading Westbrook (carrying negative trade value) wouldn’t have made much sense given that John Wall is the only worthy contract available
and what I mean by that is, if someone has a player that’s useful and making around what THT is paid , then why on earth would they trade such a piece for a project like tucker
their hands were tied without giving up a 1st , and even then their options were bleak
Lakers are a MESS
I can’t believe all the hype surrounding this team in the off-season….
this was by far the most predictable outcome
honestly tho if they make the dance, they could still make a run if LeBron is healthy
Lebron has his last ring. Cleveland would be fools to allow his poison to hurt Mobley and Garland. They can win without him.
Are you kidding me? He could make them champuons this year or the next. Without him the are a 2nd round team at best!
Lebron is signed for a few more with lakers so it is mute. I
LeBron can go pretty much wherever he wants whenever he wants
If he wanted to go to Cle next year they would roll out the red carpet for him
Ofc the best route for Cle would be to just wait until 23/24 and get him free with cap which they will have
What? Poison? That’s the dumbest comment ever. If he’s poison how has gotten so many teams to the finals?
If that’s poison give me another 2-3 doses.
He comes off as arrogant. But who cares? I’m never going to meet him. I met Kobe once it was at Disney Walk when the staff cleared all the regular people out of the store so he could shop alone.
So who cares about personality. You get removed for their comfort. All that matters is if he helps your team win and no one as in NO ONE since Jordan has guided so many winning team
I think the PTB at ESPN and the Athletic should have been more leery of hiring McMenamin and Oram.
McMenamins source is weak as hell. A person “familiar with their thinking” is how he puts it. What does that even mean? like an old friend from high school?
LBJ and AD were the ones who pushed for Russ in the first place. Maybe Pelinka’s done asking what they think. I would be.
I would trust McMenamin over Pelinka every day and twice on Sunday.
This team is crumbling. Not just this season. It’s been rotting at the core for many years.
Probably somebody in Mrs. Rambis’s book club
Rob is gone after this season.
Malik Monk out-performs his contract $1.8 million
Next year Lakers can offer him $2.1 million
Other teams may offer him 4-year $40 million
Monk is better than Horton Tucker
Wave Bazemore too, he contributes nothing but cheerleading. Nothing
He contributes spelling.
The Lakers have an “ethos?”
The Laker’s players don’t care about basketball anymore. They’re too distracted being celebrities all around town.
Miss the grit of a Magic, Worthy, AC Green, Kobe, Shaq and a bunch of other Laker greats who really cared about winning and played the game the right way.
Congrats to PHO and GSW who play real basketball and have competent front-offices, unlike the Lakers, an old-fashioned run famíly business.
I mean at the time it’s hard to argue the Russ deal was worse than the Heild deal.
Russ in Washington out up 22-11.5-11.7, his three pint percentage was the best it had been in years and he really helped them in the back half of the season go to the playoffs where they won a game over the Sixers.
Heild on the other hand was on having a career worst season besides his rookie year. The kings had been looking to move him for a while and had moved him to the bench.
Even right now, contracts aside
Heild 14-4-2 and Russ 18-8-7.5
Russ’s shooting numbers aren’t great but in terms of what he’s done in the past his 3 point percentage I down less than 1% from his career average. He’s shooting his career average from the floor, he’s giving up his career average in turnovers, his rebound numbers are basically his career average. The only huge drop off besides points is his FT%.
The main difference on why he’s perceived as being so bad is that he’s in LA on the team everyone watches and expects to win and they ain’t winning. Ofcourse that contracts doesn’t help but he’s always been paid really well. It’s just being in LA with LBJ and AD and not winning.
I think if he got traded to say Pelicans or Rockets or whatever he would go back to being viewed as good again. Would probably put up 23-10-10 still give up heaps of turnover and miss threes but would improve those teams to more wins and not get the attention he gets in LA.
Meanwhile everyone else on the Pelicans or Rockets would be suffocated on offence and have their growth zapped
Russ’s main problem is the NBA has changed a TON in the last decade while Russ hasn’t changed a bit
Thinking they could change this style over a nice dinner in the summer was the Lakers fault to begin with.
Alpha’s in any industry have a hard time playing 2nd or 3rd fiddle no matter what’s said at the opening press conference
There are 3 types of lies – Lies, damn lies and statistics
Idk yes those teams players would’ve taken a hit but compare his stats to every other season in the league and the numbers don’t change a lot beside his usage and shots taken.
He’s always going to play at 100% full throttle, give you great stats and effort. However what comes with that is poor shooting, turnovers and some poor decision making sometimes.
The league and change and Russ hasn’t thats 100% correct but in saying that if he ended up on a bad team he would no doubt help them win more games putting up terrific numbers again. It’s just the media, attention and expectations of LA has ruined his value.
It’s one of those things that on paper should’ve worked but in reality it was just a nice idea that didn’t come to fruition.
The real mistake was not getting DeMare DeRozan who said he would’ve taken a home team discount to be on the Lakers.
He’s only on 26mil, 3 years right now. They could’ve passed on Russ and Heild and got DeRozan for something like 2 years 30/40mil
I don’t think Russ fits any team today
But I will put my trust in the final n$mbers 17 months from now
Like Ive said Ive put the bar at a 2/20 for his next ink MLEx2 – I wouldn’t be surprised if he can’t even draw that. A retirement will be taken as an omission if so happens to occur
I see both sides here—on the one hand, Russ was dam good the *second half* of last season. Post-AS break Russ played 38 games and put up 23.6/12.8/13.1 on .447/.327/.704. There’s a reason legit people thought he had a case for 3rd team All-NBA
Having said that, he was terrible the first half of last year and it’s very likely that 38g stretch may have just been the last gasp of his elite athleticism.
To C&C’s point, Russ’s biggest weakness is he never created a contingency plan for himself for when his burst declined. A lot like Iverson in that regard. He has no shot, no D, and he’s inefficient as hell.
“…there was no go-ahead of an OK to have inaction at the deadline.”
That’s the problem right there. The same guys who thought Russ would learn to shoot corner 3s over a glass of Merlot last summer are the same ones complaining that there no more deals to be made.
Ha true, this is all to save face tho, they know (and rightfully so ) that they didn’t have anything to net this round with the asset pool
No activity was the best possible route
If Russ could actually make shots there wouldn’t be a story. He makes a few layups and a couple shots a game, just nowhere near enough to live up to his contract.