Getty Russell Westbrook, Los Angeles Lakers
At the end of the current season, Russell Westbrook’s contract with the Los Angeles Lakers will expire, and the 33-year-old point guard will become an unrestricted free agent.
According to Bleacher Report’s Eric Pincus, it’s unlikely that Westbrook will remain with the Lakers once his current deal expires, primarily due to his perceived poor fit alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Instead, Westbrook is expected to field offers from multiple teams before deciding what his next move will be.
Q: I care about the trade deadline. Why would it matter who is a FA in 2023?
A: If teams are far apart on their own pending FA, struggling, changing direction, opening cap via trade, etc, good players could become available before Feb 9 @BleacherReport
“While Russell Westbrook may be a polarizing player, he’s a future Hall of Fame point guard. He doesn’t fit well with LeBron James on the Lakers and isn’t likely to return (if he makes it through the year without a trade). Westbrook won’t earn close to his current $47.1 million contract, but he could find suitors with the mid-level exception (either the higher $11.4 million non-taxpayer or $7 million taxpayer). It’s not out of bounds that a team with $12-20 million in spending power takes a flier on Westbrook,” Pincus wrote on December 2.
Interestingly, head coach Darvin Ham appears to have stumbled onto a winning formula with Westbrook, situating him as the Lakers’ sixth man and allowing him to orchestrate the second unit – a move that has yielded exceptional results. So far, Westbrook has come off the bench for 16 games this season, averaging 15.9 points, 7.7 assists, and 4.9 rebounds per game while shooting 35.7% from deep and 41.8% from the field. The Lakers have gone eight and eight in those games.
Lakers Could Re-Sign Westbrook in Free Agency
According to a Western Conference Executive, who spoke with Heavy on Sports’ Sean Deveney under the condition of anonymity, the Lakers could be tempted to explore re-signing Westbrook in free agency should he continue to impress while coming off their bench for the remainder of the season.
“No one likes to admit a mistake. Look, they had chances to just dump the guy if they wanted to, but if they did that, if it was an addition-by-subtraction thing, they would be saying, ‘Yeah, we really messed up.’ They gave up (Kyle) Kuzma and KCP (Kentavious Caldwell-Pope) for the guy, and you see how much they miss guys who can play their roles, especially KCP. He is exactly what they need. So they have been gun-shy about getting rid of Westbrook because it’s egg on their face if they do.
So it is not crazy that they could sign him at a much lower number than what he has this year. He is not going to have a market next year, not with all that has gone on in the past two seasons. Can he get a taxpayer midlevel (expected to be $7 million), even? What team is going to give him that right now? So if he stays in L.A. for that kind of contract, yeah, that could happen, but it would have to be a very lowball deal,” The executive said.
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Of course, Westbrook would need to accept that his future lies with being the leader of a second unit and that his time as a starter in the NBA has come to an end – yet, it’s certainly possible that another NBA team offers him a starting role, at which point, he will have a tough decision to make.
Westbrook’s Bench Role Could Extend His Career
During a November 22 episode of Heavy on Sports’ Postin Up With Keith Smith & Adam Taylor Podcast, the notion of Westbrook extending his career by accepting his new bench role was discussed, with Smith sharing his belief that Westbrook could add multiple years onto his career should he stick with his new role long-term.
“He could add two, three, productive years to his career. It’s gonna be whether or not he’s really willing to make those sacrifices and changes. Yeah, letting him kind of cook on second units, that’s tough because you also think, too, when he gets in the game, it’s quite often when the starters are, they’re just the need of that first blow, and those backup guards they’re not equipped to handle Russ, you know, when what he does as an attacker so yeah, I think we’re getting close,” Smith said.
It will be interesting to see if Westbrook continues to embrace his new role beyond this season or if he’s simply biding his time before he can retake a starting position on a new roster next season.
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