NBA Trade Rumors: As a surprise to no one, the Los Angeles Lakers are expected to restart Russell Westbrook trade talks soon.
If you would have told me at the end of last season that Russell Westbrook would still be on the Los Angeles Lakers roster a few days before the start of the 2022-23 NBA season, I wouldn’t have believed you. Nevertheless, with the start of the regular season on the horizon, here we are.
Russ is on the roster and set to be, at the very least, in the Lakers’ rotation on opening night. They experimented with him coming off the bench in the team’s final preseason game Friday night. Though, he left with a hamstring injury and couldn’t finish the game.
Nevertheless, it appears that the Lakers will try to make things work with Russ. For how long? Perhaps that’s the true question.
Will the Los Angeles Lakers trade Russell Westbrook?
The Lakers have had trade talks for Russ during the offseason but, clearly, nothing came to full fruition. And according to a recent report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the expectation is that the Lakers will restart trade talks for Russ soon.
Woj: "The Lakers at some point here will start engaging teams again on possible Russell Westbrook trades."#NBATwitter pic.twitter.com/UnWtk1ll6X
— 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐢𝐧' 𝐍𝐁𝐀 (@_Talkin_NBA) October 14, 2022
That should not be a surprise. If the Lakers want to upgrade its roster, it will likely have to include trading Russ – more so for salary reasons rather than value reasons. But that’s always been the case for the Lakers since Russ decided to opt into the final year of his contract.
Let’s also not act like the recent noise surrounding Russ and the Lakers have been calming. Just a few days ago, Russ made headlines because he did not participate (on two occasions) in a Lakers’ huddle – a pregame one and a mid-game one.
Russ explained himself after the fact but the optics were not good and only added fuel to the fire.
The Lakers will have their hands full at the start of the year. They need to control the Westbrook situation while trying to find their footing as a contender in the Western Conference again.
It’s likely that the Lakers are going to trade Russ at some point this season. But there’s no indication when that will exactly be.