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The Los Angeles Lakers currently find themselves towards the bottom of the NBA’s Western Conference, sitting 14th, just 2.5 games ahead of the Houston Rockets.
Despite Russell Westbrook proving to be a great sixth man, and Anthony Davis playing at a superstar level, the Lakers are still struggling to win games due to their poor roster construction. As such, Bleacher Report’s Greg Swartz believes the Lakers should look to add another ball-handling wing and an additional center via trade, with the Charlotte Hornets being the ideal trade partner.
Swartz’s trade proposal looks like this:
Lakers Get: Gordon Hayward and Mason Plumlee
Hornets Get: Russell Westbrook, Max Christie, and a2023 second-round draft pick
Westbrook’s New Role Could Extend His Career
Since Westbrook made the move to the Lakers bench, his performances have begun to rebuild his trade value around the NBA, especially with teams looking to give themselves an extra bump in time for the post-season.
But, according to Keith Smith, who was speaking on a November 22 episode of Heavy on Sports Postin’ Up with Keith Smith and Adam Taylor, the biggest upside of Westbrook’s new role is that it could extend his career by two or three years, assuming the 33-year-old commits to being a bench piece beyond the current season.
“Let’s see what happens with the thumb injury he suffered last night (November 21). If that turns into a thing that will obviously impact it. But yeah, I think so. I’ve been saying if he’s willing to sacrifice, which can be very hard for a player of his stature and what he has been for years and years and years in this league. If he’s willing to sacrifice and go to making a Derrick Rose-like transition, to being ‘I’m gonna be the leader of the second unit. I’m gonna come in, I’m gonna do my thing. Might only be for twenty minutes a night, but I can really do that.’
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.
For Charlotte, having Westbrook play backup to LaMelo Ball would give them considerable insurance for their star point guard, while also helping their second unit to become more of an offensive threat. As such, Swartz’s trade proposal makes sense.
Westbrook Could Re-Sign With the Lakers
Assuming Swartz’s trade proposal remains theoretical, and never actually comes to fruition, there’s a chance that Westbrook could remain with the Lakers beyond this current season – assuming he’s willing to agree to a significant decrease in pay when he hits unrestricted free agency next summer.
According to a Western Conference Executive, who spoke with Heavy on Sports’ Sean Deveney under the condition of anonymity, Westbrook could potentially be convinced to remain with the Lakers for the foreseeable future.
“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.
Of course, Westbrook will need to continue performing at his current level if he wants his value around the league to keep growing, especially after such a disappointing debut season with the Lakers throughout 2021-22, where Los Angeles missed out on the playoffs. The Lakers will be back in action on November 25, when they face off against the 6-13 San Antonio Spurs.