Getty Russell Westbrook of the Los Angeles Lakers.
‘Tis the season for crazy NBA trade rumors and no team is linked to more players than the Los Angeles Lakers. With February’s trade deadline rapidly approaching, the Lakers have two potential options for the rest of the season. The Lakers can hold firm with their current roster by allowing the team’s three stars more time together after the start of the season was riddled with injuries.
Yet, if things do not improve by February the Lakers will be faced with a Russell Westbrook sized dilemma as the team considers making potential deals. The challenge is Westbrook still has two seasons remaining on his five-year, $206 million deal and will have a staggering $47 million salary for the 2022-23 season. In other words, there is not a booming trade market for Westbrook, even if the Lakers decided to hit the reset button by the deadline.
During a December 6 episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast, the analyst threw out a wild Lakers-Blazers trade proposal which he later added is unlikely to happen. Simmons explained why there could be some intrigue about a Westbrook for C.J. McCollum deal before admitting that the Blazers are unlikely to have any desire to add the Lakers star.
“So, I was just going through the teams, and I think it’s really hard to find a McCollum trade, too,” Simmons explained. “You end up taking on somebody else. I swear, I thought about this for a split second on Saturday night, then I was like, ‘No, no, no they’ll never do that.’ But I did think about Westbrook and McCollum in some sort of deal for a second.
“…I thought of it more from like watching Portland just lifeless and dead, and I was like, this would actually a good Westbrook team. He would come in, he would try to get a triple-double every night. He would really give a s*** and then L.A. could get McCollum. But there’s just no way, I don’t think Westbrook’s tradable.”
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Westbrook’s $44 Million Salary Makes Finding a Trade Challenging
Even in this hypothetical proposal, Westbrook’s $44 million salary makes in nearly impossible to make a trade happen. Let’s say the Blazers did have an interest in Westbrook, Portland would need to include more than $13 million in additional salaries to make a deal work.
The challenge is it is the Lakers that would need to send more assets back to the Blazers as McCollum has a higher trade value than Westbrook. The Lakers could trade their prized swingman Talen Horton-Tucker, but the Blazers already have Nassir Little and Anfernee Simons. Both are young wing players who the team is hoping can eventually play larger roles, not dissimilar to Horton-Tucker.
Under this scenario, the Blazers would need to add even more salary to match Horton Tucker’s $9.5 million for this season. Los Angeles has little to offer Portland in the way of draft capital thanks to their previous blockbuster deal with the Pelicans for Anthony Davis.
All that to say, it is nearly impossible for Portland to find a palatable deal for McCollum from the current Los Angeles roster. McCollum is averaging 20.6 points, 4.5 assists, 4.1 rebounds while shooting 39.3% from the three-point line this season.
LeBron on Potential Roster Moves: ‘I Don’t Think We Even Need to Do That’
So, if McCollum is not moving to Los Angeles, what options do the Lakers have as the trade deadline nears? The Lakers’ biggest asset is Horton-Tucker, but his trade value may be lower than last year given his inconsistent play to start the season. Even so, the swingman is still likely the Lakers’ most tradable player outside of LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
General manager Rob Pelinka has his work cut out for him given James’ fingerprints are all over the Lakers’ offseason roster moves. All indications are James pushed for the Westbrook trade while the Lakers had a deal on the table with the Kings centered around Buddy Hield. The Lakers signed James’ good friend Carmelo Anthony, finally allowing the two players to be teammates before they retire. This is why it is no surprise James dismissed the idea that the Lakers need to make additional roster moves.
“No, I have not [seen enough of the current Lakers team together] to answer the question, so it’s impossible for me to say, ‘Okay, when do we get to a point where we need to make a change?’” James noted during a December 6 press conference. “If any, I don’t think we even need to do that. I love every guy that’s in this locker room, and I believe in what we’re capable of doing when we get enough game reps and enough log[ged] minutes. We’ve had guys in and out and, especially me.
“Like, I can’t even say how I even feel at this point, because I haven’t even been in the lineup half of the games. So, I love what [general manager Rob Pelinka] and coach [Vogel] and the front office did to assemble this team and we look forward to the journey ahead of us.”