Russell Westbrick Discussion: Clipper Gonna Clip

Yeah, I have a feeling if he wanted to salvage any of his reputation that remains while he's been here, he will give up money. Hopefully he's as delusional about that as much as he thinks about his basketball ability. If he gave back like 10-20 million (Walker gave up 10 million a year), then adios.

 

Eff it… let’s offer to hang up his jersey in the rafters if he agrees to opt out

 

The Lakers need to do something drastic...and bench Westbrook. At this point, everybody would welcome it and nobody would question it.

 

the right thing to do is to send him home. don't risk him suffering a major injury that would affect any trade moving forward

 

yep russ bout kobe mentality lol

 

I never, ever, EVER thought a guy could come along and take the shine off Oscar Robertson's averaging a triple-double for a season, but Russ has done that for me this year.

"Man! Oscar Robertson! The Big O, man! He once averaged a triple-double for an entire season!"

"Yea...but...Westbrook did that, too. A couple times, man."

"You're joking, right? Westbrook? The turnover king? The guy who can't make lay-ups OR hit 3s? That guy?"

"Yea. Matter of fact, he averaged a triple-double in 4 of 5 seasons."

"Ohhhh wowww...really? Never mind. Glad the Big O got a ring with Kareem in Milwaukee though. No team with Westbrook is ever gonna get a ring, that's fer damned sure."

"Word, man."

 

Maybe Kobe was wrong about him

 

He certainly was. He is really far of the Mamba Mentality. He doesn't assume his mistakes, he's in constant denial. He never worked on his game. Anything that goes wrong is the fault of others. A superstar veteran with no shot and still bricks every game. Doesn't have a winning mentality, any loss is ok for him. He's terrible in the free throws.

 

It attempts to find a bright side, thought I'd go team by team and see if there's a viable trade to be had to jettison Russ.

Hawks: Collins, Bogdanovic, Knox (picks up option)
Lakers: Russ, THT, our 2 1sts, and a couple 2nds
Comments: only works if they want to be FA players in '23, believe in THT, and think our picks will be gold.

C Bags: Horford, Smart
Lakers: Russ, 1 1st, 2 2nds
Comments: Al and Russ are both expiring and are vastly overpaid for where they're at in their careers. Was Smart's extension given to him because he's an asset or because they want to keep him? Based on on hard they've shopped him the last couple years, I think it's the former. Is a 1st and 2 2nds what they want for him?

Nets: no options here

Hornets: Hayward and Rozier
Lakers: Russ, THT, our picks
Comments: gets them off their bad/long contracts. Are they on the THT train?

Bulls: no options

Cavs: not an option

Mavs: Hardaway Jr, Bertans
Lakers: Russ
Comments: we're taking on longer deals on slumping players. One of the only paths where we don't have to use additional assets to dump Russ. And we save a little money in this one.

Nuggets: n/a

Pistons: n/a

GS: nope

Rockets: we know the options here Wall and Wood, Wall and Gordon. I try to get Nwaba in either deal
Lakers: Russ or Russ, THT, Nunn, picks
Comments: we've discussed this one to death and will continue this summer

Pacers: Turner, Brogdon
Lakers: all our assets we can give them
Comments: only works if they want off Brogdon's deal and they believe in THT. Takes some maneuvers to get the $ to work, but Turner is my #l1 target this summer so I'd jump through those hoops.

Clippers: they'll never help us

Grizz: n/a

Heat: Lowry + ?
Lakers: Russ
Comments: money is short but if there's someone to figure out a sleazy under the table way to make something happen, it's Riley. Bam, Jimmy, and Robinson are the only other players who won't be on expirings next season. Lowry is trending downward and isn't always available. Unlikely, but not impossible.

Bucks: nope

Wolves: n/a

Pelicans: won't answer our calls

Knicks: lots of bad contracts with a lot of options here with Randle as centerpiece. Some combo of Randle, Fournier, Burks, Kemba, Noel, Rose
Lakers: Russ + THT
Comments: depending on the return, I think we can avoid losing our 1sts. We'll have to give them the asset of THT, maybe 2nds, maybe Nunn if they question Rose's health moving forward.

OKC: Favors and Muscala
Lakers: Russ + picks
Comments: return of the prodigal son? Both OKC guys have options (TO & PO). If anyone loves a draft pick, it's Bron's favorite GM. Maybe he was trying to butter him up for this move?

Magic: couple options 1) we get nothing back, they'll have money for him. 2) Bamba and Ross.
Lakers: Russ + pick for option 1. Russ + THT + picks for #2.
Comments: Magic won't be players in free agency, so the extra money does them little to no good. They can acquire assets and picks from us without impacting their rebuild. I like Ross and Bamba for us, high impact expirings. Higher impact mercenaries than we'll get in FA.

Philly: not happening, Russ and Harden aren't going to play together again

Suns: n/a

Blazers: Dame force your way here... please

Kings: Barnes
Lakers: Russ + picks
Comments: free agency has been an epic failure for them for years. We'd be doing them a favor by taking them out of it. How many picks would they want to milk us for after the Hield deal, no deal?

Spurs: Pop would rather retire than coach Russ

Raptors: don't see it

Jazz: Conley and Bogdanovic
Lakers: Russ + picks
Comments: Conley like Lowry is going downhill, on a longer deal, and playing less. Very unlikely, but not impossible.

Wiz: want no part of the Unicorn.


I think Mavs, Rockets, Magic, Knicks, and OKC are all viable options for us to get off Russ this summer.

 

Dude, nobody wants Westbrook.

And not for $47 million even in an expiring.

Honestly? If I read Vash's post correctly, I would give this dude a $47 million dollar check and say bye bye and stretch him.

As much as I wanted Kuzma gone, this dude makes me miss Kuz...a lot.

There is no way he can come back to this team. If he does, I'm writing off next season and it's a failure for the summer.

 

He's definitely gone. Team will look much different next year.

 

No one wants Russ the player. I agree. The contract? Couldn't disagree more. GMs make mistakes and overpay every summer. If you're giving a team an earlier exit on multiple bad longer deals that hurt their tax dollars for YEARS, they feel that pressure from ownership to get out from under those deals. Or if you're giving team assets (like an OKC or ORL) for them to babysit his contract for a year and that doesn’t impact their plan. Or some combination of both of those things... contract exits + assets, like a Knicks deal, teams will absolutely make those type of moves. Even if the team we send him to pays him to sit at home in LA next year, they're coming out ahead in these moves.

Thinking otherwise is an emotional reaction to Russ the player and the s*** show of a season that we're in because of that decision made by our Klutch captains.

 

Kobe was VERY, VERY wrong about him. Just like all of us, Kobe was just a human and made mistakes.

 

I'm not giving up assets to offload Westbrook or taking back long-term salary on an expiring deal.

I wouldn't do it.

Nobody is taking on that contract without doing either of those things.

Free free to read back on this post in July.

 

RB will be our best player next year. The other stars will miss 50+ games, and we'll be forced to keep him just to put fans in the seats.

 

We all do, Brother.