While Lakers star Russell Westbrook hasn’t asked for a trade, he remains open to the possibility, ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne said on The Lowe Post podcast. Training camps open later this month, so Los Angeles is running out of time if it wants to deal Westbrook before the season officially starts up.
In 78 games last year, Westbrook averaged 18.5 points, 7.4 rebounds and 7.1 assists per night, shooting a respectable 44% from the floor. He played more games than any other player on the Lakers and had a better season than most fans give him credit for.
Of course, film and advanced metrics certainly wouldn’t reveal the player that was once a league MVP, nor would it reveal a player worth the $47MM he’s owed next season. However, it’s still possible Westbrook doesn’t finish — or even start — the 2022/23 season with the Lakers.
There’s more from the Western Conference:
- The Rio Grande Valley Vipers — G League affiliate of the Rockets — have hired Kevin Burleson as head coach, the team announced on social media (Twitter link). Burleson replaces Mahmoud Abdelfattah, who was promoted to become a Rockets assistant coach. Burleson was most recently an assistant coach with the Timberwolves.
- The Suns didn’t have in-depth discussions with the Nets about a potential Kevin Durant trade, general manager James Jones said, as relayed by Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic (subscription required). Phoenix re-signed starting center Deandre Ayton, while Durant ultimately returned to the Nets last month. The Suns were reportedly one of Durant’s preferred destinations when he requested a trade in June.
- In a separate article for the Arizona Republic, Rankin explores five takeaways from Dario Saric‘s EuroBasket play. Saric, who was traded to the Suns in 2019, suffered a torn ACL in 2021 and missed all of last season, but he plans to be ready for the start of the 2022/23 campaign.
If I were Westbrook, I would not play for Lakers next season
Westbrook needs more shot attempts and handle the ball more so he can sign another big contract
i genuinely don’t know if you’re clowning or not
However unlikely. There’s certainly a world where Westbrook plays so well he’s able to secure another contract from someone of substance, especially if it’s strictly 1 year deals. He’s certainly worth 20 plus million to someone if he’s averaging triple doubles
Timberwolves have a pretty good defender up the middle who could hide some deficiencies on the floor
He’s got 47 million reasons to play for the Lakers next season.
The chances of Westbrick securing another big deal are almost zero. He’s looking at an MLE deal when he hits free agency.
What the Lakers do NOT need is Russ taking more shots or handling the ball more.
Lakers have 3 main problems by ranking
1 GMs
2 Davis and LeBron missed games
3 Westbrook
If Lakers are true super team with depth like Nets, they can sit Westbrook the whole season
Wouldn’t it be better to play Westbrook so he might do good enough to trade him? Lakers problem is they went all in for that one championship by trading away the future. Now the team is paying for it. If they never traded for AD they don’t have a championship but would have built a solid team for a few years.
Every franchise takes that deal 10/10 times. Half the league has a “solid” team. Lakers made the right move landing AD even if they don’t get ANOTHER chip. There’s no other way of looking at it.
So how exactly does Ramona know that he is open for a trade? Didn’t tell her?
Found that odd too. Im not intrigued enough to go dig through that podcast but the lack of quotes, to me anyway, suggests she probably floated the idea of a Westbrook trade and said something to the effect of maybe he wouldn’t hate a new home. Russ showing up to Hams and Bevs press conferences seem to indicate his commitment to the Lakers franchise.
18/8/8 was a solid year. Can’t hate on the man for playing on a team with no scrappers/ shooting. He and lebron bring the same X factors to a game so it’s just a horrible match. He can still help 1/3 of the league but at 47 mill it’ll be tough
What’s a higher #? The national debt or the number of Westbrook trade rumer/idea articles?
If he doesn’t get moved by TC it will be neck and neck
Did Westbrook really have a better season than fans give him credit for?
He finished 147th out of 177 in the league in Box Plus Minus, right between Kevin Porter Jr and Deni Avdija.
As far as his shooting goes … he was even less impressive. In True Shooting he finished 180th out 197, right between Eric Bledsoe and Lonnie Walker.
In a vacuum, true, he wasn’t the WORST player in the league. But he was definitely in the bottom, say, 25% of players who actually played enough minutes to register for an advanced metric, while being the 4th highest player in the league. Which is pretty disastrous.