NBA Trade Rumors: Should the Lakers trade Russell Westbrook for John Wall?

NBA Trade Rumors: Should the Los Angeles Lakers trade Russell Westbrook for John Wall at the trade deadline? 

As the NBA Trade Deadline approaches, there’s no question that the Los Angeles Lakers are going to be one of the most active teams in the league. Whether or not they’ll be able to make a move, considering their limited assets, is an entirely different story.

However, one interesting trade rumor that has gained some steam over the last couple of weeks is the idea that the Lakers could trade Russell Westbrook to the Houston Rockets in exchange for John Wall. Essentially, this is your typical “my problem for your problem” trade.

Although, I’m not exactly sure this is something the Lakers should jump into. Especially if they end up striking out on some other deals they may have on the horizon.

I have a feeling that this is a deal that the Lakers could circle back to if they have nothing cooking as we inch closer and closer toward the deadline.

Right now, the Lakers are 9th in the Western Conference at 24-26 on the season. If the Lakers are going to make a move up the standings, you’d expect that a move has to be done ahead of the trade deadline.

That said, there are two big issues with this entire premise, even if the Lakers are open to making the Westbrook for Wall deal.

For one, it will likely take the Lakers admitting they made a mistake this past offseason and will also cost them an additional asset (likely a future draft pick) to make it all work. I have doubts that Lakers management would get to that point.

If it was merely Westbrook for Wall, perhaps the Lakers are more open to it. Although, if it does take a first-round pick, I can’t really see this trade happening. Objectively, it’s also probably better for the Lakers to eat this mistake.

And second, making this deal happen would also mean that the Lakers are essentially going all-in on the idea of addition by subtraction. The only way this trade truly works is if the Lakers firmly believe that the team will get better by simply removing Westbrook from the lineup – there’s no guarantee that Wall will offer any substantial improvement to the team.

Essentially, the Lakers would be approaching this trade as one big experiment. And if the Lakers are at that point, perhaps there are even bigger issues on this roster that won’t be able to get fixed or remedied through a trade at the deadline.

Perhaps on the surface, it appears that the Lakers have a Russell Westbrook problem. But, there’s a very good chance that they have some deeper issues that are going to take much more than a trade deadline deal to fix.