Buying and selling Russell Westbrook should value Lakers first-round choose
With lower than every week to go earlier than this yr’s NBA commerce deadline, the Los Angeles Lakers would nonetheless prefer to unload Russell Westbrook, so long as he would yield a pleasant return that may drastically transfer the needle in the precise course.
They’ve reportedly been reluctant to maneuver him for a lot of this season, particularly since he has performed considerably higher ever since being moved to the bench. However his limitations, particularly relating to his lack of outdoor taking pictures and manufacturing off the ball, are nonetheless evident, particularly when enjoying alongside LeBron James.
One other factor that hasn’t modified: The insistence that the Lakers embody a future first-round draft choose by different groups as the value of taking up Westbrook.
By way of Los Angeles Times (h/t Lakers Daily):
“4 months later, the marketplace for Westbrook has largely been unchanged, in accordance with league sources from rival groups,” the Los Angeles Instances’ Dan Woike wrote. “The sense is any Westbrook commerce in all probability would nonetheless require the Lakers to incorporate a first-round choose to offset a workforce paying the remainder of Westbrook’s $47 million wage.”
As soon as once more, the Lakers are interested in buying and selling for Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving, as they have been final summer season. Buying him would likely cost them, at a minimal, Westbrook and two future first-round draft picks.
They’ve been reportedly unwilling to half with each of these picks until they might carry again a participant or gamers that may make them championship contenders, however would that unwillingness change with Irving within the equation?
Plainly until there’s a slam-dunk Westbrook commerce on the market for L.A., it should merely maintain on to him for the remainder of the season.
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