Lakerholics

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The Los Angeles Lakers seem focused on trading Russell Westbrook to the Brooklyn Nets for Kyrie Irving and committing the franchise to a second straight season where most of their salary cap went to three superstars.

With the Nets paralyzed over what to do with Kevin Durant, progress on a Westbrook for Irving trade has stalled, which could be the perfect time for the Lakers to pause and consider whether trading for Kyrie is the best path. While there’s a logic and symmetry to the Lakers and Nets swapping problem superstars, committing all of your salary cap to three players makes it difficult to build a championship roster around your superstars.

The Nets’ implosion opened a door to a seemingly impossible gift from the basketball gods, a chance to dump Russell Westbrook and receive in return superstar point guard Kyrie Irving and elite shooting guard Joe Harris. Frankly, the Lakers and LeBron were so excited about the chance to swap Russ for two legitimate starters, including a superstar and an elite 3-point shooter that they may not have thoroughly considered their other options.

So let’s compare the Lakers’ rotations if they traded Westbrook, Horton-Tucker, and two unprotected first round picks for Kyrie Irving and Joe Harris or Myles Turner, Buddy Hield, T.J. McConnell, and Patrick Beverley.

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1. Trade for Irving and Harris

The above trade sends Russell Westbrook, Talen Horton-Tucker, and the Lakers 2027 and 2029 unprotected first round draft picks to the Brooklyn Nets for superstar point guard Kyrie Irving and elite two guard Joe Harris.

Irving would immediately become the Lakers’ starting point guard and the team’s lead scorer and playmaker, while Harris would become the starting shooting guard and needed high volume, high percentage 3-point shooter. While Irving, Harris, James, and Davis is a great foursome, the starting center position would be between two young unproven centers, with 27-year old Damian Jones likely beating out 24-year old Thomas Bryant.

That would give the Lakers a starting five of Irving, Harris, James, Davis, and Jones with backups of Nunn, Reaves, Brown Jr, Johnson, and Bryant and reserves of Christie, Walker IV, Toscano-Anderson, and Gabriel.

Is that a championship starting lineup and rotation? Assuming James, Davis, and Irving all are healthy and Kyrie is on his best contract year behavior, the Lakers should be able to compete for a championship again. The biggest question marks with this superstar laden roster is whether Jones and Bryant can provide the 3-point gravity to help the team’s spacing or the shot blocking and rim protection to anchor the team’s defense.

Point guard and center are where Darvin Ham wants the Lakers’ best two defenders. They’re also key positions for spacing on offense. The problem is Kyrie Irving and Damian Jones are not Jrue Holiday or Brook Lopez. 

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2. Trades for Turner, Hield, McConnell, and Beverley

The first trade sends Westbrook and the Lakers’ 2027 and 2029 unprotected first round draft picks to the Pacers for Turner, Hield, and McConnell. The second trade sends Horton-Tucker and Gabriel to the Jazz for Beverley.

Turner would immediately become the Lakers’ starting stretch five center, Hield the starting shooting guard and volume 3-point shooter, Beverley the starting point guard and lead defender, and McConnell backup point guard. What makes this starting lineup and rotation better than one with Irving and Harris is having elite defenders in Patrick Beverley and Myles Turner manning the critical point guard and center positions in Ham’s defense.

That would give Lakers a starting five of Beverley, Hield, James, Davis, and Turner with backups of McConnell, Reaves, Brown Jr, Johnson, and Jones and reserves of Nunn, Christie, Walker IV, Toscano-Anderson, and Bryant.

Is this a championship starting lineup and rotation? While it lacks three superstars, it has Beverley at point guard and Turner at stretch center, both of whom can fill the key two-way roles of Jrue Holiday and Brook Lopez. What we’re seeing is the same challenge the team faced last season, which is having to make a philosophical decision whether three superstars or two superstars with a more talented starting lineup and more depth on bench.

The Lakers need to stop chasing players because of their name and instead focus on adding players to the team whose offensive and defensive skillsets better complement and unleash LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

A year after trading for Russell Westbrook, Lakers’ GM Rob Pelinka is on the verge of pulling off a miraculous extreme makeover that could catapult Los Angeles from dismal lottery team to legitimate championship contender.

That’s what pulling off the proposed Russell Westbrook for Kyrie Irving trade would mean to the Lakers. Pelinka has done excellent work making the Lakers younger, bigger, and more athletic but the job’s not done. The Irving trade would be the crown on an under-the-radar superb summer by Pelinka, who was given little chance of getting out of the Westbrook trade, but is now on the verge not only of trading Russ but doing it for Kyrie.

While some would criticize the Lakers’ offseason decisions as having been ‘hit-and-miss’ and the front office as not being ‘in-lock-step,’ there’s respect growing for how the team managed and controlled media this offseason. Frankly, the Lakers have done a remarkable job convincing everybody that they’re willing to bring Russ back if they can’t trade him and that they’re not going to give up draft picks or take back bad contracts just to move him.

Here are the five difference-making moves that could transform the Lakers into legitimate championship contender and make Rob Pelinka one of the early season favorites to win the NBA’s coveted Executive of the Year award.

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1. Hire Darvin Ham as the Head Coach (Check ✔)

Pelinka’s summer and everything good that’s followed started with the inspired hiring of Darvin Ham, whose charisma has won everybody over and whose leadership promises to give the Lakers identity and direction.

Darvin Ham was a breath of fresh air that a Lakers organization exposed as dysfunctional in the aftermath of the Westbrook trade desperately needed. Suddenly, the Lakers had a charismatic voice to lead them into the future. Rather than try to fit candidates into a preconfigured checklist, Pelinka and the Lakers’ brain trust simply bought in to the Darvin Ham’s vision for the Lakers, how to optimize LeBron and AD, and how to resurrect Russ.

The other factor in Ham’s favor when it came down to winning the Lakers job was his fit due to his recent experience on the Bucks’ coaching staff running a modern stretch offense to create floor spacing for Giannis. That Pelinka also interviewed Bucks’ assistant coach Charles Lee as well as Darvin Ham was not a coincidence. Give Rob credit. He finally realized the Lakers needed to modernize their offensive approach to win today.

Every organization needs to have a visionary and Pelinka and the Lakers have smartly bet Darvin Ham can be that visionary to lead the team to the promised land and have given him full authority to run the team as sees fit.

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2. Give Ham Power Over Staff and Style of Play (Check ✔)

Besides hiring the right coach, Pelinka reversed what were major mistakes made during Frank Vogel’s hiring. Unlike with Vogel, the Lakers agreed to allow Darvin to hire his own coaches and determine the team’s style of play.

While what they’re paying him has not been made public, the Lakers did give Ham an unprecedented four-year contract plus the freedom to build his own staff, which is comprised of dynamic young coaches like him. Surprisingly, Darvin also did not hire an experienced former head coach as his lead assistant. Instead, he hired Hawks’ assistant Chris Jent, a rising young assistant coach with a strong background in player development.

Pelinka also did an about face when it came to the style of play the Lakers would deploy, making sure everybody understood Darvin Ham was the coach of the team and there would be no front office interference like with Vogel. Unspoken is that we wouldn’t be seeing any of the odd organizational quirks like Kurt Rambis overseeing Ham’s coaching meetings or the front office instead of the coaching staff promising starting roles or playing time.

Make no mistake, Darvin Ham was specifically brought in by the Lakers to run a modern NBA offense to create spacing for LeBron James and Anthony Davis like Milwaukee did for Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton.

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3. Create Back-Up Plan for Russell Westbrook (Check ✔)

The Lakers realized early that they might have trouble finding a trading partner for Russell Westbrook considering how poorly he had played last season so they smartly put together a contingency plan if they kept him.

The goal of the contingency plan was two fold. First, they wanted to build up Westbrook’s trade value as much as possible. Second, they wanted to give Russ a clear understanding of what would be expected if he stayed. Ham had numerous meetings and conversations so there would be no misunderstanding if the Lakers brought Russ back that his focus would be first on defense and playing off the ball, not on scoring and triple doubles.

While Darvin Ham has been enthusiastic about the opportunity to coach Russ and what a fan of his he is, the reality is the Lakers’ priority is to trade Russ and the contingency plan is also a good way to draw a line in the sand. Should the Lakers not be successful in trading Russ, they have made it perfectly clear to him what his role would be on this team should he return. Unfortunately, the chances Russ could meet those requirements are slim.

Whether the Lakers were serious or just posturing doesn’t matter as the Russ for Kyrie trade is going to happen. With Darvin Ham’s lead, the Lakers have also made sure to show Russ the respect he deserves as a player.

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4. Give Ham the Roster He Needs to Win Championship. (Pending …)

Unlike last season when the Lakers front office build a roster that was the opposite of what head coach Frank Vogel wanted, Rob Pelinka involved new head coach Darvin Ham on every personnel decision made this summer.

The result, when finished, will be a roster that is exactly what Darvin Ham wants, which is dramatically younger, taller and longer, more athletic, and better shooting than last year’s roster. Kyrie is the star of this class. Pelinka needs Kyrie’s elite playmaking and 3-point shooting to upgrade the Lakers starting lineup and superstar big three. He also needs the additional one or two high volume, high percentage 3-point shooters slated to be filler.

Choosing to go younger, bigger, and more athletic is a dramatic change from last year’s team which was the oldest in the league. This year, 12 of the 17 players on Lakers roster including two-ways will be under 30-years old. More importantly, once the Irving trade goes through, the Lakers will have created a team that can not only challenge for a championship this year but hopefully for many years to come, depending on how Kyrie works out.

While the Lakers still lack a bigger 3&D wing defender, they have improved their positional size advantage by starting a stretch center while moving LeBron to the 3 and AD to the four against smaller opponents.

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5. Trade Russell Westbrook for Kyrie Irving (Pending …)

Having hired Ham, empowered him to choose a staff and style of play, created a back-up plan for Westbrook, all that remains for Rob Pelinka to do to make this offseason a sensational success is to trade for Kyrie Irving.

Because the Lakers and Nets must match salaries for trade to be legal, the simplest trade is Russell Westbrook and a pick for Kyrie Irving and Seth Curry, which is a trade where neither team sees annual salaries increase. That’s important because both teams pay heavy luxury taxes so $10 million increase in salary could cost as much as $20 to $40 million including taxes. For the same reason, neither team wants to take back multi-year contracts.

What makes trading Westbrook challenging is the Nets do not want him, which means they either have to buy him out or require the Lakers to involve a third team to take him, which would mean draft compensation. Ideally, the Lakers need three legitimate rotation players for Irving via a trade of Westbrook, Horton-Tucker, Nunn, and 2 picks for Irving, and two of the Nets’ Harris or Curry or the Spurs’ Richardson, or McLemore.

The Russ for Kyrie trade would not only give the Lakers a better-fitting superstar big three but also three high volume, high percentage 3-point shooters they need to surround LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

A Win-Win-Win three-team NBA trade is what do you get when you mix two toxic superstars, two disappointed superteams, and a franchise hungry to replicate its successful tanking strategy and steal the next Tim Duncan.

We’ve heard all of the reasonable arguments about why this trade won’t happen, most of which ignore that the Lakers simply do not have any other potential trade partners for Russell Westbrook or the Nets for Kyrie Irving. The missing piece to the puzzle of how to make the trade work was the San Antonio Spurs, who’re now committed to tanking next season in pursuit of their next Tim Duncan in 7′ 3″ teenage French center Victor Wembanyama.

Let’s analyze what the actual trade is likely to look like, what each team is looking for from the trade, what each key player on the move is looking for, and why what each team and player ends up getting in this trade is a win.

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What Is Trade Likely To Look Like?

It’s never easy to predict how a blockbuster NBA three-team trade will look like but the above example is one that has emerged as a logical alternative that gives all three teams involved what they theoretically want or need.

The trade accomplishes the primary goals of each of the three teams. The Lakers dump Russell Westbrook. The Nets dump Kyrie Irving. The Spurs get paid for taking Westbrook, who has already said he would buy himself out.
The trade saves the Lakers $5 million in salary this season, gives the Nets a $30.7 million traded player exception to bring in a player or players without sending out salary, and gives the tanking Spurs a pick for taking Russ.

There are two additional players the Spurs are looking to dump in Doug McDermott and Zach Collins but both have 2 years left on their contract, which makes them both unlikely candidates for the Lakers or the Nets.

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Why Trade Is A Huge Win for the Lakers

The Lakers essentially give up all of their trading chips: Russell Westbrook, Talen Horton-Tucker, Kendrick Nunn, their 2027 first round pick, and their 2029 first round pick. In return, they basically got everything they wanted.

They got rid of Russell Westbrook. They got a 1-year trial of Kyrie Irving and two legitimate rotation players who can shoot the three in Seth Curry and Josh Richardson. They also got out of the second year of THT’s contract. Subtract Westbrook (29.8% on 3.4 3PA pg), Horton-Tucker (26.9% on 3.0 3PA pg), and Nunn (0% on 0.0 3PA pg) and add Irving (41.8% on 8.2 3PA pg), Curry (46.8% on 6.5 3PA pg), and Richardson (41.5% on 3.8 3PA pg).

The Russ for Kyrie trade allowed the Lakers to rebuild their superstar big three but also to supplement the young and athletic roster they built in free agency with elite three high volume, high percentage 3-point shooters.

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Why Trade Is A Huge Win for the Nets

Regardless of what they may say, the Brooklyn Nets have had it with Kyrie Irving and there is no way they want him on the team next season. The entire Nets organization blames Kyrie for the disaster last season.

For the Net, the opportunity to trade Kyrie to the Lakers and end up with Jakob Poeltl and Kendrick Nunn, two solid rotation players, LA’s 2027 first round pick, and a $30.7 million traded player exception is stunning. Realistically, the Nets should pull the trigger on this trade right away to avoid any risk that another NBA team might give the Spurs a more lucrative offer to take advantage of the their open cap space to dump bad contracts.

The Nets would be wise to execute the trade with the Lakers and Spurs so they can reassess their Kevin Durant trade opportunities to reflect the $30.7 million traded player exception they will have a year to use.

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Why Trade Is a Huge Win for Spurs?

Most NBA fans forget that the most successful tanking campaign ever in the NBA was executed by none other than the San Antonio Spurs, who benched David Robinson much of the 1997 season in order to tank for Tim Duncan.

With their trade last week of Dejounte Murray, the Spurs officially kicked off their tanking campaign to draft Victor Wembanyama, the hot 7′ 3″ teenage French center who will be the #1 draft pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. San Antonio has created cap space to take on Russell Westbrook’s $47 million contract and/or other contracts teams want to dump for the right draft capital in compensation. They also have contracts they want to dump.

Rob Pelinka, Sean Marks, and R.C. Buford will all be in Las Vegas this weekend for Summer League. It’s not impossible that they may meet and finalize some version of a Russ for Kyrie trade before the week is over.

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Why is the trade a big win for Russ and Kyrie?

Unsaid is that this is a trade driven by two superstars whose presence, or absence in Kyrie’s case, lead to stunning collapses by the two teams with superstar big threes who were heavy favorites to meet in the NBA Finals.

But after the Lakers missed the playoffs and the Nets became the only playoff team not to win even one game, Westbrook and Irving are now set to somehow land on their feet even after what was a disastrous season. Irving especially will find himself in a great position if he’s traded to the Laker, getting to play with LeBron James, with whom he won his only NBA ring, and Anthony Davis, still holding his Bird rights in a contract year

For Westbrook, he’s already said he’d negotiate a buyout rather than play for the Spurs so he’ll finally be free of his \max contract and will become an unrestricted free agent who can choose where to resume his career.

The Lakers have a path to move Russell Westbrook but it’s going to cost them a first round pick and will have to be made before the OKC Thunder’s open cap space disappears when this NBA season ends tomorrow June 30th.

While trading Russ into OKC’s open cap space won’t yield a pair of proven rotation players earning $20 million per year, it would give the Lakers three borderline rotation players who would be upgrades over current players. Additionally, it would give the Lakers a $32.4 million traded player exception (TPE) to use to acquire players without sending out salary and the ability to hard cap themselves to use the full $10.4M MLE and $4.1M BAE.

Let’s look at the advantages trading Westbrook to OKC gives the Lakers and why that could be their best path to rebuilding their roster and hopefully returning to being a legitimate contender with a chance at a championship.

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Trading Russell Westbrook Into OKC’s Cap Space

Solving the Lakers Westbrook conundrum starts with trading Russ’ $47.1 million expiring contract into the Oklahoma City Thunder’s open cap space, which will disappear on July 1, 2022 when SGA’s new extension starts.

Other than the Pistons and Knicks who have cleared cap space specifically for free agents, the Thunder is the only team with the cap space to absorb $32.4 million of the $47.1 million left in Westbrook’s expiring contract. Oklahoma City will want a first round pick from the Lakers as the price for using their cap space but should be willing to include elite defensive guard Luguentz Dort and 3&D wing Kenrich Williams as quality rotation players.

While the Lakers have positioned themselves as unwilling to include a pick to move Westbrook, there’s no way they want Russ to be part of the roster next season. Dumping him into OKC’s cap space opens other doors.

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The Power of a $32.4 Million Traded Player Exception

Traded Player Exceptions allow teams to trade for players without having to send out salary. By sending out $47.1 million and receiving back only $13.4 million, the Lakers would create a $32.4 million traded player exception.

The Lakers could use the $32.4 million traded player exception from trading Westbrook into the OKC Thunder’s cap space for one or multiple players whom other teams are looking to move to save cap space and cut expenses. The Lakers could use their TPE to trade for the Hornets’ Gordon Hayward, Terry Rozier, or Kelly Oubre, the Pacers’ Malcolm Brogdon, Myles Turner, or Buddy Hield, or the Knicks’ Evan Fournier or Cam Reddish

The Lakers’ $32.4 million Traded Player Exception would be good for a year and could be used to bring back a single elite player or multiple legitimate rotation players. It would be a valuable tool as teams look to create space.

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The Benefits of the Lakers Hard Capping Themselves

Trading Russell Westbrook and their 2029 first round draft pick for Derrick Favors, Luguentz Dort, Kenrich Williams, and a $32.4 million traded player exception also enables the Lakers to take advantage of being hard capped.

Being hard capped has three distinct advantages over teams that are not hard capped. Hard capped teams get the full $10.3 million MLE vs. the $6.4 million TMLE, the $4.1 million BAE, and right to receive S&T players. Teams that are not hard capped are limited to the $6.4 million TMLE. Being hard capped opens up the entire free agent market as teams can receive players in sign-and-trade deals, a huge advantage for hard capped teams.

Being hard capped allows the Lakers to sign an elite perimeter defender like Warriors’ guard Gary Payton II to the $10.3 million MLE and a young stretch center like Clippers’ Isaiah Hartenstein to the $4.1 million BAE.

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Can Lakers Transform Themselves Into Contenders?

The Los Angeles Lakers will continue to be legitimate contenders to win an NBA championship as long as they have a healthy LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Nothing that happened last year has changed that.

For purposes of seeing what kind of team the Lakers could build by trading Westbrook into the Thunder’s cap space and hardcapping themselves, I’ve assumed the Lakers used their traded player exception on Hayward. I’ve also assumed the Lakers used their $10.3 million full MLE on Isaiah Hartenstein and their $4.1 million BAE on Gary Payton II and exercised their team options for Austin Reaves, Stanley Johnson, and Wenyen Gabriel.

Finally, I’ve assumed the Lakers traded Talen Horton-Tucker, Kendrick Nunn, and their 2027 first round draft pick to the Houston Rockets for Eric Gordon to provide elite 3-point shooting along with solid perimeter defense.

When considering bringing back Westbrook, the Lakers would be wise to remember the astute words of Albert Einstein: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”

While nobody knows what they are planning to do this offseason, the Los Angeles Lakers have been publicly and privately adamant that they prefer to bring Westbrook back rather than spending any draft picks to move him. This is despite having hired a rookie head coach in Darvin Him and Russ’ salary making it impossible for the Lakers to find players with the requisite size, shooting, and defense to complement their three superstars.

When you understand how daunting a challenge it would be, you can’t help coming to the conclusion it would be pure lunacy for the Lakers to even consider bringing back Russell Westbrook under any circumstances.

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1. Russell Westbrook Is Not Going to Become a Pit Bull on Defense

The Lakers’ head coach Darvin Ham has made it clear that defense will be his priority with the Lakers and he expects to challenge Russell Westbrook to become an aggressive pit bull leading the team’s defense next season.

Anybody who has watched Russell Westbrook on defense the last few years of his career can immediately see the disconnect between what Darvin Ham wants out of Russell Westbrook and what he’s likely to get based on history. Ham must be thinking he’s getting the OKC Thunder version of Westbrook as a point guard if he thinks Russell can become the tip of spear for the Lakers’ defensively like Jrue Holiday was as the point guard for the Bucks.

The Lakers better be successful in moving Russ this summer because they’re making a crazy mistake opening the season thinking Westbrook will become an elite defender. Russell Westbrook is not Jrue Holiday.

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2. Keeping Russell Westbrook Prevents Lakers Building Deep Roster

If the Lakers do not trade Russell Westbrook and his $47 million expiring contract, their only path to trading for a legitimate rotation player would be by packaging Talen Horton-Tucker, Kendrick Nunn, and their two picks.

That should be enough to net the Lakers a budding young player like 23-year old guard Gary Trent Jr. or 24-year old small forward OG Anunoby but then their small portfolio of trading chips would be completely exhausted. The Lakers could also sign a second rotation player with their $6.4 million taxpayer MLE but would then like last season be forced to build out the rest of their roster with unproven or veteran minimum salary players.

Keeping Westbrook will result in the Lakers adding just two legitimate rotation players (1 via trade and 1 via free agency) compared to the 5 they could add (3 via trade and 2 via free agency) if they instead traded Russ.

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3. Keeping Russell Westbrook Limits Lakers Access to Free Agents

The Lakers’ rebuilding this summer has focused on trades since they’re over the cap and will only have the $6.4 million taxpayer MLE available to use on free agents. But that could change if the Lakers trade Russ.

Were the Lakers able to trade Westbrook, THT, and Nunn while taking back $10 million less in annual salary, they could get under the $155 million hard cap, which would give them greater access to this year’s free agent class. They could then use the full $10.3 million MLE and the $4.1 million BAE and be able to receive free agents via sign-and-trade transactions. They would have an additional $8.0 million to spend on free agents if hard capped.

Trading Russell Westbrook gives the Lakers access to young free agents like Isaiah Hartenstein, Tyus Jones, Gary Payton II, and Otto Porter, Jr. whom they might not be able to sign without trading Russ and hard capping.

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4. Keeping Westbrook Could Cause LeBron James to Reject Extension

One rumor that’s made the rounds is LeBron does not want the Lakers to bring Westbrook back. The word is he knows signing Russ was a mistake but is not willing to sign an extension if Pelinka doesn’t fix problem.

Fixing the problem means one of two options: the Lakers either include a pick to move Russ or waive-and-stretch him to they can get under the hard cap and supplement what they get for Russ in a trade with free agents. Push come to shove, there’s no way the Lakers can finish this offseason with Russell Westbrook still on the roster. No matter how you spin it, that would signal a complete failure of the Lakers front office to build a winning roster.

The Lakers greatest fear has to be bringing back Russell Westbrook raises the risk that LeBron James to leave the Lakers as an unrestricted free agent next summer to a dangerous level that the Lakers should avoid at all costs.