Stein: Lakers have agreed to trade for Russell Westbrook

[Eric Bieniemy]

I would've easily taken Hield over Westbrook, but it's done. They went for the big splash. They got it. Now build the team properly.

[stan francisco]

I don’t get trading three good defenders for Westbrook (offense only), and then giving up Caruso. We need defense.

Ariza and Howard is a start. Giving up Caruso is a fourth defender gone (KCP, Kuz, Harrell) within a week.

Rob, have you lost your mind or have you secretly signed a prime John Stockton to go with this?

Defense wins championships. I thought he knew that.

[loveshaq786]

I don’t get trading three good defenders for Westbrook (offense only), and then giving up Caruso. We need defense.

Ariza and Howard is a start. Giving up Caruso is a fourth defender gone (KCP, Kuz, Harrell) within a week.

Rob, have you lost your mind or have you secretly signed a prime John Stockton to go with this?

Defense wins championships. I thought he knew that.

I've seen Westbrook play freaking amazing defense. He is definitely capable of playing better defense than any of the three players we traded

[stan francisco]

I don’t get trading three good defenders for Westbrook (offense only), and then giving up Caruso. We need defense.

Ariza and Howard is a start. Giving up Caruso is a fourth defender gone (KCP, Kuz, Harrell) within a week.

Rob, have you lost your mind or have you secretly signed a prime John Stockton to go with this?

Defense wins championships. I thought he knew that.

I've seen Westbrook play freaking amazing defense. He is definitely capable of playing better defense than any of the three players we traded

‘Capable of‘ and ‘I’ve seen it happen’ vs being a defensive dog every night is a big difference. Maybe on this team he can afford to spend some energy on defense. Let’s hope.

[Up-And-Coming]

I don’t get trading three good defenders for Westbrook (offense only), and then giving up Caruso. We need defense.

Ariza and Howard is a start. Giving up Caruso is a fourth defender gone (KCP, Kuz, Harrell) within a week.

Rob, have you lost your mind or have you secretly signed a prime John Stockton to go with this?

Defense wins championships. I thought he knew that.

I've seen Westbrook play freaking amazing defense. He is definitely capable of playing better defense than any of the three players we traded

‘Capable of‘ and ‘I’ve seen it happen’ vs being a defensive dog every night is a big difference. Maybe on this team he can afford to spend some energy on defense. Let’s hope.

Westbrook is basically a souped-up, more aggressive Dennis Schroder (both positives and negatives). The biggest drop in positional defense would be from the guard spot w/ KCP & Caruso gone imo. Other then that I think we improved in certain defensive matchups (Dwight is a better defender than Harrell/Drummond, Westbrook overall has been a better defender than Schroder, Ariza could provide similar defense to Kuz but in more limited minutes, THT will likely take Caruso's backup guard minutes so we could miss Caruso's smart defensive positioning and Nunn/Ellington will have to try to replicate KCP's chasing/running over screens type of defense).

As of now, it’s hard for me to say we definitively got worse on defense.

[Ckay]

Russell Westbrook introduction at 1PM.

[Slava]

That was a nice introductory presser. The LA media were nice and Westbrook was generous with his responses. Also nice of his family to show up.

[Beethoven]

Never seen Westbrook smile that much. I love him coming here w a lot of passion and humility. I believe we're winning the chip this year. Every player who came aboard this off-season are overjoyed to be here as a laker.
That's the key.
Last year we had a few people come more concerned about their future career moves than just being passionate about being a true laker.

[Vae Victus]

I don’t get trading three good defenders for Westbrook (offense only), and then giving up Caruso. We need defense.

Ariza and Howard is a start. Giving up Caruso is a fourth defender gone (KCP, Kuz, Harrell) within a week.

Rob, have you lost your mind or have you secretly signed a prime John Stockton to go with this?

Defense wins championships. I thought he knew that.

Harrell cant defend a traffic cone. DHo is a massive upgrade defensively.

Kuz hustles and is a decent defender when he goes all out on D.

KCP and Caruso were excellent perimeter defenders and losing both will be a huge blow.

Shroeder was a massive negative on D, being a midget who has no inclination to hustle on D.

Westy, assuming he's going at least 80%+ intensity on D, will be a massive upgrade on Shroeder, and can easily make up for the loss of D of one of KCP/Caruso. I'm leary of Ariza having much left in the tank.

If the team can bring back Matthews, that'd be huge. Nunn is garbage on D, due to being undersized SG, as he sure as heck aint no PG.

I trust Vogel to get a solid defensive scheme setup. I have alot of confidence, even with no more moves, we'll have a top 5 defense from Vogel's schemes and 100% buy in from all the players.

[stan francisco]

I don’t get trading three good defenders for Westbrook (offense only), and then giving up Caruso. We need defense.

Ariza and Howard is a start. Giving up Caruso is a fourth defender gone (KCP, Kuz, Harrell) within a week.

Rob, have you lost your mind or have you secretly signed a prime John Stockton to go with this?

Defense wins championships. I thought he knew that.

Harrell cant defend a traffic cone. DHo is a massive upgrade defensively.

Kuz hustles and is a decent defender when he goes all out on D.

KCP and Caruso were excellent perimeter defenders and losing both will be a huge blow.

Shroeder was a massive negative on D, being a midget who has no inclination to hustle on D.

Westy, assuming he's going at least 80%+ intensity on D, will be a massive upgrade on Shroeder, and can easily make up for the loss of D of one of KCP/Caruso. I'm leary of Ariza having much left in the tank.

If the team can bring back Matthews, that'd be huge. Nunn is garbage on D, due to being undersized SG, as he sure as heck aint no PG.

I trust Vogel to get a solid defensive scheme setup. I have alot of confidence, even with no more moves, we'll have a top 5 defense from Vogel's schemes and 100% buy in from all the players.

Well, points well taken all around. Vogel even got LBJ to return to playing D after a season of no D prior. Maybe Frank can teach Russ how to master playing positional team defense, something he’s not known for so far.

If so, holy smokes. Because offensively, we shouldn’t have problems putting points on the board against anybody. Like the Nets. But if we also have a solid defensive rigor, it’s over.

[Dr Aki]

https://www.nbcsports.com/washington/wizards/wizards-gm-tommy-sheppard-explains-why-he-traded-russell-westbrook-lakers

Wizards general manager Tommy Sheppard confirmed that was the case on Friday in an offseason press conference and explained how the timeline of events transpired in the days leading up to the trade in July.

"That was a very, very unusual circumstance where the day before the draft we were kind of spitballing some ideas and getting some input. I had a heart-to-heart with Russell and it was important to him that I knew and the Wizards knew he wants to play here," Sheppard said.

"If there was ever an opportunity with the Lakers, that would be the one place. I look at his Hall of Fame career and all he did for us, certainly, for me, I will try to help a guy as long as it helps the Wizards. In this case, we could do a deal and it did help the Wizards."

[loveshaq786]

Westbrook for hield, k.anderson, and rondo

Memphis trades k.anderson, culver, JH, rondo gets Westbrook

SAC gets culver, JH and a second round pick for hield

That would be sick.... But prob not happening at this point.

We could probably get bane or Clark out of that deal.... Only because Ja Morant is definitely high on Westbrook

[SlimShady83]

Can't wait for all the Westbrook haters shut up come season

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Can't wait for all the Westbrook haters shut up come season

They will once they see the Westbrook that we saw during the 17 wins and six losses portion of our season.

[Cubbies2120]

Can't wait for all the Westbrook haters shut up come season

[LAKESHOW]

So much good will. So much good vibes. So much exuberance. So quickly dashed and trashed. I'm done with AD as well. We got our chip, let's move on in totality

[Hans1984]

Can't wait for all the Westbrook haters shut up come season

[Landsberger]

yeah.... the first few pages are proof that people short circuit reality temporarily for fandom. The fact that this was 3 pages deep on a site with fairly low traffic that people abandoned those posts pretty quickly. Is what it is....

[TylersLakers]

I'm going to wait to freak out until I see what the roster looks like. If we come out of this with Buddy Hield as well.. dream scenario. But.. yeah. If our roster truly is Westbrook/Caruso/Wes/LeBron/AD with THT and some vets off the bench.. I'm going to be absolutely pissed.

My worst case scenario would have been way better than what actually happened. Puke.

[JVL]

Can't wait for all the Westbrook haters shut up come season

Any last words?