Stein: Lakers have agreed to trade for Russell Westbrook

[Cavsfansince84]

The only reason I think this might work out for the Lakers is that LeBron seems to be the one behind it and he has a higher bb iq than any of the coaches and gms in the league when it comes to making stuff work on the court. He moved out almost the entire Cavs roster mid season in 2018 then took what they got in return and led them to the finals. It all really comes down to both LeBron and AD being healthy anyhow. If they are healthy the Lakers are the favorites to come out of the west.

[LAL1947]

I totally hate this move from every perspective.

The only way this can maybe work is if we get a premium 3&D wing and Lebron goes to PF and Davis to C. Every other scenario (like having Drummond, McGee, Gasol etc... in our best lineup) will fail and we will never come out of the 1st round of the PO.

This. +1

[LAL1947]

If they are healthy the Lakers are the favorites to come out of the west.

Way too early to be discussing who comes out of the West! If everyone is healthy and playing as you would expect them to, the Nuggets are going to be a problem. They have 4 top level players who complement each other and decent depth.

Murray
Barton
Porter Jr
Gordon
Jokic

Anyway, lets see how Rob fills out the rest of the roster before we get that far ahead.

[BEazy]

How is it that Dennis got so much support here by some and now it's the end of the world with Russell Westbrook who is 100000 times better than Schroder? If you believed we could've won the championship with freaking Schroder as our starting point guard, then you should have no problem believing Russell Westbrook can win with this roster. Compare the stats people, Westbrook and Schroder are very similar except Russell Westbrook backs up his talk, while Youtuber just talks nonsense. I'm sure these are also the same people that hated the Rondo acquisition and probably said it wouldn't work.

When the Lakers acquired Schroder, they gave up only Danny Green who struggled in the recent playoffs, not 3 players and a pretty good 22nd pick.

Montrezl Harrell didn't want to stay in LA and he could've left us high and dry therefore we couldn't of traded for either Hield or Westbrook if he did. KCP was pretty bad all season long, and we need somebody that can hit consistent shots for the whole season, not just 1 or 2 months, and his defense is overrated by a lot of Laker fans. Kyle Kuzma didn't take his opportunities to shine and kept underperforming when he had his chances. 22nd pick (Isaiah Jackson) isn't going to become some Joel Embiid or Nikola Jokic and he won't get playing time because it takes bigs more time to acclimate into the NBA. We are win now mode, LBJ window is closing quick and by keeping those guys on board would make the Lakers look bad and probably piss off LBJ and AD. Those 3 players we sent out are easily replaceable and the pick isn't going to play for years.

Schroder's season with OKC was an anomaly and Rob fell for it, plus we didn't have a strong minded PG like Chris Paul to keep Youtuber's ego in check.

You wanted THT to leave but here you are saying we could of drafted this and that. Like you said we don't need young guys if we're in win now mode.

[kblo247]

- Carmelo 133 @ 40% 4.7attempts
- Danny Green 175 @ 40% 5.6 attempts
- Reggie Bullock 163 @ 40% 6.1 attempts
- McDermot 111 @ 39% 4.3 attempts
- JaMychal Green 79 @ 40% 3.4 attempts
- Olynk 126 @ 34% 4.4 attempts
- Rudy Gay 106 @ 38% 4.4 attempts
- Patty Mills 161 @ 38% 6.3 attempts
- Tony Snell 62 @ 57% 2.3 attempts

[TroubleS0me]

Westbrook has a player option for the following season if things dont go well this season you guyys will cap space if he decides to walk

[DanishLakerFan]

I come home from vacation to this?

**** Russell Wesbrook for the pick and three rotation players.

I cant say im surprised because they've done this **** for a while now, but they better have a plan in place to surround those guys with some shooting or else this wont end well. I choose to ignore the rumors of Carmelo Anthony.

And to just end on a positive note. It might work. Reminds me of a bit of the Heat big three - non-shooting guard (Wade/Westbrook) and versatile big (Bosh/AD). Maybe Fizdale is the guy who can get Westbrook to buy in. Maybe they do have a few moves up their sleeve in terms of adding some shooting and defense.

[kblo247]

If you replace KCP 29 mins, 10 points, 120 threes on 40% and Kuzma 28 mins, 12 points, 137 threes on 36%

With

Melo 25 mins, 13 points, 133 threes on 40% and Gay 22 mins, 11 points, and 106 threes at 38%

I can live with it. The gap between Dennis and Russ is big enough that the gap between those two for those two isn’t huge, and everyone knows I love KCP and Kuzma. It balances the floor, adds size, and takes away scoring droughts. I mean they went 8 damn mins in a playoff game without scoring for hell’s sake. At a certain point you can just say **** it and give it to a melo or Gay and they will score the ball or get to a line. Other times they have clearly tweaked their games to be bench players who don’t need 30 mins but can catch and shoot threes, stay in shape, and give you double digits

And I trust Melo more than I do Trez getting me a stop on a big. I damn sure trust melo in a post up more than Drummond too

[tamaraw08]

How is it that Dennis got so much support here by some and now it's the end of the world with Russell Westbrook who is 100000 times better than Schroder? If you believed we could've won the championship with freaking Schroder as our starting point guard, then you should have no problem believing Russell Westbrook can win with this roster. Compare the stats people, Westbrook and Schroder are very similar except Russell Westbrook backs up his talk, while Youtuber just talks nonsense. I'm sure these are also the same people that hated the Rondo acquisition and probably said it wouldn't work.

When the Lakers acquired Schroder, they gave up only Danny Green who struggled in the recent playoffs, not 3 players and a pretty good 22nd pick.

Montrezl Harrell didn't want to stay in LA and he could've left us high and dry therefore we couldn't of traded for either Hield or Westbrook if he did. KCP was pretty bad all season long, and we need somebody that can hit consistent shots for the whole season, not just 1 or 2 months, and his defense is overrated by a lot of Laker fans. Kyle Kuzma didn't take his opportunities to shine and kept underperforming when he had his chances. 22nd pick (Isaiah Jackson) isn't going to become some Joel Embiid or Nikola Jokic and he won't get playing time because it takes bigs more time to acclimate into the NBA. We are win now mode, LBJ window is closing quick and by keeping those guys on board would make the Lakers look bad and probably piss off LBJ and AD. Those 3 players we sent out are easily replaceable and the pick isn't going to play for years.

Schroder's season with OKC was an anomaly and Rob fell for it, plus we didn't have a strong minded PG like Chris Paul to keep Youtuber's ego in check.

You wanted THT to leave but here you are saying we could of drafted this and that. Like you said we don't need young guys if we're in win now mode.

Harrell could've have left us high and dry? The main reason he is opting in is his overall value has significantly dropped and that is beside the POINT. Not a few are lamenting to the fact that they could have used these assets to SOLVE the glaring problems of this team which is spacing like Buddy Hield.
BTW KCP averaged 40% from 3 the WHOLE SEASON and it's not like he shot 80% in December and hit just 20 for 3 months. The problem was 3-4 other teammates struggled from hitting the 3 like AD, Morris, Schroder etc.
And if you indeed are addressing and 3pt shooting woes, then you should be worried too that Westbrook is a very bad 3pt shooter with a career 30% from there. Zach Lowes podcast detailed his concerns about this pick up, citing that he is the worst among Rondo and Dennis, that he takes a lot of bad shots AND he plays bad defense the past 5 years. BTW, he also said Houston actually catered to him, by opening the lanes so he can attack the basket which paved the way for him to get 41.5% of his shots from 0-3 feet. Guess what? he only had 19% of his shots for the same distance in Washington.
I am NOT HATING yet on this trade bec I am hoping that Pelinka will add 2 more deadly shooters to help space the floor.
When did I say I wanted THT to leave? I simply called you out when you said you hated Schroder's inability to shoot 3's then turn around and professed your love for THT who shoots UNDER 29%.

[tamaraw08]

- Carmelo 133 @ 40% 4.7attempts
- Danny Green 175 @ 40% 5.6 attempts
- Reggie Bullock 163 @ 40% 6.1 attempts
- McDermot 111 @ 39% 4.3 attempts
- JaMychal Green 79 @ 40% 3.4 attempts
- Olynk 126 @ 34% 4.4 attempts
- Rudy Gay 106 @ 38% 4.4 attempts
- Patty Mills 161 @ 38% 6.3 attempts
- Tony Snell 62 @ 57% 2.3 attempts

thanks for the research.
Attempts per game is certainly a consideration, take the case of Snell who barely shoots, but then again he barely plays too 21 mins/game as compared to Green who played 28 mins... btw he attended HS in Riverside CA with Kawhi, so he might take a discount.
But we also need to consider career 3pt% esp with what happened to Schroder who had a shooting anomaly in OKC.
I have been a fan of Patty Mills, this guy has been really consistent with his 3pt accuracy, the guy has never shot below 37 the past 6 years now.

[tamaraw08]

I come home from vacation to this?

**** Russell Wesbrook for the pick and three rotation players.

I cant say im surprised because they've done this **** for a while now, but they better have a plan in place to surround those guys with some shooting or else this wont end well. I choose to ignore the rumors of Carmelo Anthony.

And to just end on a positive note. It might work. Reminds me of a bit of the Heat big three - non-shooting guard (Wade/Westbrook) and versatile big (Bosh/AD). Maybe Fizdale is the guy who can get Westbrook to buy in. Maybe they do have a few moves up their sleeve in terms of adding some shooting and defense.

Please remember that in 2012-13, Heat 2nd in ORTG bec they also have
Battier, Allen, Miller and Chalmers who ALL SHOT ABOVE 40% from 3, Lebron also shot 40.6 while Lewis 39%.
Lebron should be calling JJ Reddick and Ellington right now,

[Beethoven]

Wait a minute we didn't include kcp? Other reports only say kuzma Harrell and pick

[LAL1947]

Wait a minute we didn't include kcp? Other reports only say kuzma Harrell and pick

I don't think the salaries would match without KCP. Westbrook is on 40m+, right?

[MAMBAEMD]

It has to be all three (KCP, Kuz, Trez) to match salaries. One or more of them may get rerouted from the Wiz to get a PG since they now need one .

[kblo247]

- Carmelo 133 @ 40% 4.7attempts
- Danny Green 175 @ 40% 5.6 attempts
- Reggie Bullock 163 @ 40% 6.1 attempts
- McDermot 111 @ 39% 4.3 attempts
- JaMychal Green 79 @ 40% 3.4 attempts
- Olynk 126 @ 34% 4.4 attempts
- Rudy Gay 106 @ 38% 4.4 attempts
- Patty Mills 161 @ 38% 6.3 attempts
- Tony Snell 62 @ 57% 2.3 attempts

thanks for the research.
Attempts per game is certainly a consideration, take the case of Snell who barely shoots, but then again he barely plays too 21 mins/game as compared to Green who played 28 mins... btw he attended HS in Riverside CA with Kawhi, so he might take a discount.
But we also need to consider career 3pt% esp with what happened to Schroder who had a shooting anomaly in OKC.
I have been a fan of Patty Mills, this guy has been really consistent with his 3pt accuracy, the guy has never shot below 37 the past 6 years now.

Best thing for Melo is Melo shot 40% on pull up, 40% on corner, 40% on wide open threes so his 3 ball was all basically lethal last year off the bench for 25 mins.

[Freighttrain]

I guess we're really desperate if we try to make it out as if Melo is going to be a net positive and a genuine rotation player. The guy can't defend nor run. This isn't prime Melo we're talking about. He's going to come off the bench and give us some decent minutes on a good day, perhaps at tops for 20 minutes. We are in desperate need of a starting shooter 3 & D guy. I've seen Green's name floating around, I guess people have short-term memory loss and forgot how bad he really was with us. I'll give him the solid defense - with KCP & Caruso I might add - but he couldn't shoot an open shot in an empty arena. What is he going to do in a full Staples, get stage freight? Man, it just feels really bleak in terms of the additions we're going to have. I still like the DeMar rumored addition but we desperately need a guy like Hield if Westbrook is coming. I still like the trade though, but I'm hoping we can get other players than those names being floated around. No one saw the Harell signing and most of us thought it was gonna be a good addition but it didn't turn out that way. Perhaps Palinka has another bunny up his sleeve. When is FA official btw? I get anxiety and butterflies all at once for some reason when it comes to roster construction on the day.

[Karmaloop]

I guess we're really desperate if we try to make it out as if Melo is going to be a net positive and a genuine rotation player. The guy can't defend nor run. This isn't prime Melo we're talking about. He's going to come off the bench and give us some decent minutes on a good day, perhaps at tops for 20 minutes. We are in desperate need of a starting shooter 3 & D guy. I've seen Green's name floating around, I guess people have short-term memory loss and forgot how bad he really was with us. I'll give him the solid defense - with KCP & Caruso I might add - but he couldn't shoot an open shot in an empty arena. What is he going to do in a full Staples, get stage freight? Man, it just feels really bleak in terms of the additions we're going to have. I still like the DeMar rumored addition but we desperately need a guy like Hield if Westbrook is coming. I still like the trade though, but I'm hoping we can get other players than those names being floated around. No one saw the Harell signing and most of us thought it was gonna be a good addition but it didn't turn out that way. Perhaps Palinka has another bunny up his sleeve. When is FA official btw? I get anxiety and butterflies all at once for some reason when it comes to roster construction on the day.

I don't think you're signing Melo with the thought of him being a key cog in the rotation. It'd be more about bringing him off the bench for some instant offense.

[TravisScott55]

Fit will be interesting

[LakersSoul]

The whole thing with Westbrook versus Dennis Schroeder, is that we could have got buddy and Ingles or DeRozan.

Just because Anthony Davis and LeBron had dinnee with him doesn't mean that we had to overpay for him. He doesn't have much value in the league, and we are the idiots that called first. All Westbrook had to do after that dinner was request a trade publicly and his value would have been shot because he has done this multiple times before. That's how this should have played out, not by giving our first round pick.

Schroeder, harrell kcp for westbrook

KuZ for Ingles

Isiah jackson on our squad....

That's how everything should have played out... So yes, I'm frustrated.

Schroder was a mess, hot pile of dodo. I thought he would be our 3rd star and lead our attack when Bron sat. Nope. Schroder couldn’t lead the team and setup teammates while clanking shots. Just the wrong guy and wrong chemistry.

Westy is a poor shooter but he will be perfect when Bron sits. You guys understand we lose our lead when Bron rests, right? That should be a huge plus. Spacing the floor? LOL. All Westy has to do is throw the ball to AD and drive to the bucket. He will setup teammates and rebound. What a breath of fresh air.


The trade package: Did we give up too much?

Westy to Houston for CPaul + 2FRP, 2Swaps
Westy to DC for Wall +FRP

Westy is an All-Star that is a triple double threat every night. He was traded for a WASHED-UP CP13 plus 2/2. Then after the horrible season plus Harden issue, Houston was forced to sell low by getting back a potential AS who was injured and a FRP (lottery).

We gave up Kuzma, KCP, Harrell and our FRP for Westy plus 2 SRPs. Kuzma could not show he could be our 3/4 guy. KCP had mental issue all season but was a depth and D guy. Harrell couldn’t get minutes. 3 decent pieces but would it be that hard to replace?

What if we can add:
DHoward > Harrell
Rudy Gay > Kuzma
KCP > Melo

Harrell was unplayable in the playoffs. That was the reason the Clippers passed and so did Vogel and staff. Gay would be a big consistent upgrade over Kuzma and antics although he was growing on me. Lastly, KCP of 2019-2020 will be missed but I think we can replace him rather easily esp since 2021 KCP was a mess.

Lastly, the picks. We sent out our mid/late FRP but get back 2 SRPs in the future when high schoolers are eligible. I believe DC will still struggle and those picks will be a top second rounder for us. It’s a wash at least or most likely our advantage.

Long story short, I like the pickup. Hield would have helped as a shooter, possibly, but how about the most pressing need? We need a general!! We got one of the best in Westy. I think you guys will love him. He can’t shoot 3s but he only take 3-4 a game. The one area that worries me is his mentality as his FT% has tracked downward. He will need to fix that and hopefully LA is the remedy. We lost nothing special and can easily add depth so let’s see the final moves by Bron and Pelinka.

[LAKESHOW]

I'm gonna give Schroeder some credit. He got buckets at times for us when needed. But the problem was, he told the Media he was a starter. He told the fans he was a starter. He came in with the bravado and said he was going to be The Man for the job. But when it really mattered, he did not get the buckets we needed. He did not step up his game. He did not take over games.
This is not a problem for Westbrook. He has the FU mentality. Won't talk about it, WILL BE about it. He will take the ball and take over if need be. Will force the issue and get buckets if need be. Unafraid to be the man. Whereas Schroeder talked and sold us the goods before the season started, but could not back it up and deliver