Getty Russell Westbrook, Los Angeles Lakers
Russell Westbrook’s tenure on the Los Angeles Lakers looks all but over following the team’s failure to make the playoffs this season.
Rightly or wrongly, the nine-time All-Star has been at the forefront of fans’ frustrations throughout the season, and with Westbrook all but guaranteed to pick up the $47 million player option of his contract, the Lakers will probably be looking to cut bait.
Over the next few months, we’re going to see the California native linked with any team that has cap space, or a route to matching salaries. Westbrook, despite a season of struggles, is still a hot commodity around the league, even if his best years look to be behind him.
It should come as no surprise then, that Westbrook is rumored to be a target for the rebuilding Indiana Pacers, as the team looks to find a back-court running mate for emerging star, and recent acquisition, Tyrese Haliburton. The Pacers’ don’t have a max-salary slot available on their cap sheet, but have a pretty clear path to making salaries work via a trade, should the Lakers be interested in what Indiana has to offer.
According to Marc Stein, a potential package of Buddy Hield and Malcolm Brogdon will make the money work, while also giving the Lakers two valuable players they can run with next season, or look to move closer to the trade deadline.
“The Lakers have a well-documented interest in Buddy Hield, who came to Indiana along with Haliburton in the Sabonis trade and might well offer Russell Westbrook and his $47.1 million expiring contract for Hield and Brogdon.
With the Pacers presumed to have no interest in Westbrook beyond his expiring salary, such a swap figures to hinge on what sort of draft compensation the Lakers would be willing to furnish to sweeten the deal for the Pacers to participate and then (we can only imagine) part ways with Westbrook,” Stein wrote.
The Brogdon Drawback
Brogdon is unquestionably a talented guard and fits perfectly as an accentuator to the high-end talent the Lakers already possess. However, the six-foot-five Virginia product has struggled to stay healthy for most of his career, and that could be a potential stumbling block in any deal.
The Lakers’ inability to remain healthy was a core reason for their capitulation over the final months of the season. Adding another player with long-term injury issues, who hasn’t played more than 55 games for the last three seasons, and has never completed a full regular-season schedule doesn’t make sense for a team looking to make a quick return to the playoffs next year.
Of course, acquiring Brogdon in a deal to move off of Westbrook doesn’t mean the Lakers are married to the idea of retaining the guard long-term, and the former second-round pick could easily be used as a makeweight in another deal further down the line.
Yet, with an aging LeBron James, injury-prone Anthony Davis, and a bench unit in clear need of an upgrade and injection of youthful exuberance, Brogdon might be a double-edged sword, regardless of how long he dons the purple and gold.
Hield Fits the Bill
The Lakers will finish their season as the 22nd ranked team for three-point percentage, and the 17th ranked team for three-point attempts. Sure, the modern NBA doesn’t dictate that a successful team resides in the top ten for perimeter shots taken, nor does it command being one of the better perimeter scoring teams in the league.
However, in an era of innovation, where teams quickly alter their defensive schemes, allow their strongest defenders to slide up or down positions, and flow between multiple coverages on a possession-by-possession basis, having multiple offensive weapons in your locker is a must. The Lakers lacked a true sharpshooter this season, and their spacing paid a heavy price as a result.
.@MagicJohnson says the Lakers could’ve had DeRozan, Hield and Caruso instead of Westbrook 👀
“If you sign DeRozan, you only trade Kuzma for Buddy Hield, we would be playing in the Western Conference championship this year with those two guys.”
Hield, a career 39.8% shooter from deep, would quickly solve some of those spacing issues and give the Lakers another scoring outlet capable of going supernova off the bench. Sure, Hield doesn’t tick the box as a sturdy defender, but with the right players around him, the six-foot-four guard could easily thrive in a movement shooting role similar to that of Duncan Robinson for the Miami Heat.
With two years remaining on his $94 million contract, Hield provides the Lakers with a much-needed skillset on a reasonable contract. The Lakers have been rumored to show interest in the sharpshooter before, and moving on from Westbrook could be their best chance of adding him to their roster in the near future.