Russell Westbrook trade options: It's complicated
The Los Angeles Lakers’ disappointing season has hit a boiling point following their loss to the Brooklyn Nets with a magnified microscope on Russell Westbrook’s play. In fairness, their five-game losing streak can be attributed to the absence of many players due to health and safety protocols, as well as the long-term absence of Anthony Davis due to an MCL sprain. Still, the Lakers were playing below expectations before this recent stretch, and it’s understandable why Westbrook’s performance can be seen as a reason for that.
Plenty has been said about Westbrook’s low intensity on defense, his shot selection, and high turnovers over the years. As Kevin O’Connor puts it, those deficiencies have been there for a while to those that have really been paying attention. One of the biggest reasons the Lakers traded for Westbrook was to have that additional star who can help them stay afloat in the regular season when Davis and LeBron James miss time. Westbrook has played in all 34 games for the Lakers thus far and is 8-11 in games in which James and Davis are out.
Despite his deficiencies, the Lakers deserve some accountability for the overall roster construction. The Houston Rockets laid the blueprint on how to optimize Westbrook by surrounding him with defensive versatile players that can also shoot well and space the floor. The Lakers gave up several of those types of players with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Kyle Kuzma in the trade for Westbrook. They also let Alex Caruso, who is looking like an All-Defensive player, leave in free agency. Westbrook can be a very effective player but the roster needs to be structured in such a way to compensate for his deficiencies and this Lakers roster is not constructed in that way.
So what if the Lakers decide to hit the reset button and trade Westbrook?
Simply trading him will be extremely difficult for the Lakers, let alone recouping similar value and player types they initially gave up for him. In a league where almost every team has their point guard situation settled, it’s hard to identify teams that have a need for Westbrook. And even if there are interested teams, the main reason trading him will be so difficult is because of his contract. He is one of the league’s highest-paid players earning $44.2 million this season and has a player option for $47.1 million for next season he would be hard-pressed to decline.
Westbrook’s contract presents several problems for any team that trades for him. For starters, the team acquiring him would have to send back $35.3 million to match salaries, which could deeply impact the overall talent on their roster. On top of that, his salary for next season could interfere with a team’s future trade flexibility, their ability to stay below the luxury tax, and their ability to generate significant cap space in the 2022 offseason. It appears very unlikely that a team will acquire Westbrook for competitive purposes on his current contract.