Los Angeles Lakers TOP 3 Trades for Russell Westbrook! | Lakers Trade Rumors | Hoàng Bi

It's FYL Sportsman, it's Lamont. We are back with another podcast episode. Special episode for you guys today. I think it's just a topic that really needs to get touched on. Because, I mean, understandably. You know, we've done videos on this and we've spoke about it on our lives before. We have to cater to the Los Angeles Lakers fan base. One of the most spoiled fan bases in NBA history. We kind of have to coddle and cater to their emotions right now. As they deal with the fact that they were, not even arguably. They could easily be considered the worst franchise in the NBA at this time. They could easily be considered that. But that's just not from an organizational perspective. This is from a player perspective as well. As far as performance on the court. On a night in and night out basis. This is the state of the Lakers right now. One of the most prestigious franchises in NBA history. Is now having to deal with the very real perception. That they are the worst team in the league. But, just to give Laker fans a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel. We have to come up with some realistic trade packages. For the player that they blame their fellings this season on. And that's going to be the man on the screen, Russell Westbrook. Russell Westbrook. The Lakers made a trade to bring Russell Westbrook in. From the Washington Wizards at the start of this season. And again, including myself. Amongst many others. I felt that this particular pairing. With LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Russell Westbrook. And then the core players that they kind of brought in. You know, even though they were older. These are serviceable veterans. That were proven in the league. A lot of people thought it would work. Now we kind of have to bite our words. Because as we saw this season unfold. We saw this Laker team deal with a myriad of injuries to start the season. When they ultimately even got just their big three healthy. In Russ, AD, and LeBron. When they played together. They were only 11 and 10. So, even when they were healthy. And they had their core guys on the floor. This team was an average team at best. And if you kind of stretch that out. You know, let's say that they maintained solid health throughout the duration of the season. They're still only about a 500 team. Which lands them at the 8 seed. And probably a very, very early first round playoff exit. If they're able to scrape their way into the playoffs. With as bad as they were playing. Even with their trio of stars on the floor. So, you know, we got to move on past how bad they were this season. We know that they were historically bad with regards to playing on the floor. We know that this front office was extremely unprofessional. In how they fired Frank Vogel. So we know that there's an organizational flaw and failures from up top. We just have problems all around the board. So, I was talking to some Laker fans the other day. And they said, you know what? We don't care about anything else. We just want to get rid of Russell Westbrook at any and all cost. And so you know what I said here at FYF Sports. I am here to cater to those irrational Laker fans. That feel that trading Russell Westbrook is the end all be all solution to their problems in LA. So we're going to bring some realism to the potential trades that may be out there for Russell Westbrook. We've been hearing so many things in the media. You're talking trades to the Hornets. Trades to the Pacers. Trades to the Orlando Magic. All of these rumors swirling and circling around out there. Now what we're going to do is we're going to bring realism to these trades. And I'm going to give you guys today the three most realistic trade options for this Los Angeles Laker team. If they're looking to move Russell Westbrook at all costs. To one, get off of that money. Because he is due to receive $47 million next season. And because you have to get him off the court. Because on the court, it looked like a cancer. And then from what we hear is being reported within that Laker organization. In the locker room, he has started to become a cancer as well. So again, that was reported. We don't know how true. That particular aspect of the story is. But what we do know is when we saw LeBron, Russ, and AD try to play together. It never looked right offensively or defensively. One of those guys, they were always looking out of place like it just did not fit. And generally for the most part, that was Russell Westbrook always looking like the odd man out. But just to give the Laker fans that want to irrationally blame Russell Westbrook for how trash this team was. Like I said before, we've come up with three reasonable trade offers. That will give you, not just give you what you want in regards to getting rid of Russ. It will also do our best to bring some value back. Whatever little value you can bring back for him. But then you also have to be prepared to offer the team that you're trading with some type of value as well. They're not just going to take Russell Westbrook and that 47 million on for nothing. There has to be some value for them in the short and long term to make the deal work. So let's go ahead and get to the drawing board. Let's talk about the three best potential trades for Russell Westbrook. All right. And here we have our number three trade. Our number three trade would be with the Oklahoma City Thunder. This trade, the Thunder will receive Russell Westbrook. And they will receive one of the Los Angeles Lakers future first round picks to sweeten the pot. The Lakers in return will receive Derek Favors and also Salary Filler off of this OKC team's bench. So, you know, what a sight it would be to see Russell Westbrook back in OKC. Right. He's a hometown favorite there. And as sad as it sounds, this might be the only city that will welcome him back with open arms. Westbrook spent his first 11 seasons and of his career in OKC and is undoubtedly beloved there still to this day. Even when K.D. decided to leave, Westbrook stayed, remaining the franchise's most loyal player after they drafted him. Unfortunately, their own court fit doesn't make much sense there for either party. At this point in his career, Westbrook is trying to win and the Thunder aren't really doing that right now. At the same time, OKC is trying to rebuild and should be fully focused on developing their young talent. Bringing in Westbrook doesn't really align with those plans, but they do have the space to potentially waive him or buy his contract out and take advantage of the future first round picks that they could get from the Oklahoma City Thunder. All right. Our number two trade is going to involve the Utah Jazz. The Jazz will receive Russell Westbrook, Talyn Hort Tucker in the 2027 first round pick. The Lakers will receive Mike Conley, Bogdan Bogdanovich and Juan Hancho Hernandez. Now, OK, hear me out. This is by far the most ridiculous, unrealistic, never going to happen in a million year trade. One, primarily because I don't believe Russ is actually going to get traded. And in all honesty, it has about an 85 percent chance to blow up in Utah's face. Right. It's admittedly and I can admit this, it is bad. But it's become clear that this iteration of the Utah Jazz isn't working. And if they end up losing in the first two rounds of the playoffs, let's say next year again, well, that would just cement it. So that why not try something else? And this would be a last ditch effort for them to win because this core of Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert just isn't working. So why not bring in Russell Westbrook to run the offense again? This sounds completely crazy. But what if it's not just, you know, just a year ago, Westbrook averaged a triple double and seemingly single handedly dragged a lackluster Washington Wizards team into the playoffs? One of the main reasons things didn't work out in Los Angeles, because so many people needed the ball in their hands. But in Utah, Westbrook would be able to be an unquestioned primary ball handler. He would set up plays for Donovan Mitchell and make Rudy Gobert a more effective offensive player. You saw he did that for Stephen Adams in the time in OKC when he was out there. And, you know, and the best part about all of this is if it doesn't work out, the Jazz are free to start to rebuild next season. With Westbrook's contract being off the books and Taylor Horton Tucker on the roster, you know, and that Laker 2027 first round pick, they could trade both Mitchell and Gobert if it just doesn't work. And again, this is a crazy idea. It had no chance of happening, but the Jazz should be willing to try anything at this point. Why not give Russell Westbrook a shot? And our number one trade option is going to be with the New York Knicks. This is where the Knicks will receive Russell Westbrook and Taylor Horton Tucker. The Lakers will receive Julius Randle, Evan Fournier and Kimba Walker. Send Westbrook to the Big Apple. I think this by far is the best trade on this list or any list that I've seen on the Internet. Look, as much as Julius Randle will say he wants to stay in New York and play for the Knicks, it's time to cut the cord. Just one year after he won the most improved player of the year award, it's clear that the Knicks made a mistake when they signed him to that massive contract. In turn, it only makes sense that the Lakers and Knicks swap two of the worst contracts in the NBA for each other. Knicks fans might not be happy to get Westbrook, but here's why they should be happy. First of all, unlike Kimba Walker, who has completely lost all of his offensive ability, Westbrook has a proven track record of making his teammates better. You can mock his triple doubles all you want, but he gets his teammates good looks. For a young, up-and-coming Knicks team, that's exactly what they should want with that core of young players. Westbrook doesn't have to play 40 minutes a night, but giving him, let's say, 25 to 30 minutes, where all he does is make plays for the young guys around him, should sound pretty nice at this stage in his career. Most importantly, though, after just one year with Westbrook, the Knicks would be free of his money. So even if things end up, you know, worse than ever, which I don't think it would be, he'd be off the books by next season. The Knicks should capitalize on Los Angeles' desperate desire to get rid of Westbrook as a method to dump the rest of Randle's contract. This would easily be the best move for the Los Angeles Lakers if they're looking to part ways with Russell Westbrook, bring back in at least a core unit of talent that could keep the Los Angeles Lakers relevant going into next season. And there you have it right there. Look, I know as Laker fans, you guys are really used to getting absolutely everything that you want. You're used to getting, you know, the sweet end of all trades. We've seen this Los Angeles Laker organization finesse so many teams of their star players, their young talent, draft picks. I'm talking about four years. We're talking about a 30 to 40 year stretch of Lakers just simply finessing everybody that they make deals with. Right. So unfortunately, in this particular situation, this is going to be one of those few times where the Lakers have to simply bite the bullets. That's what I believe, even though I presented you guys with three potential trade scenarios, which I don't think will happen. Those are really the only realistic trade options that the Lakers have with Russell Westbrook's contract. At this time, the Lakers need to be simply resigned to the fact that Russell Westbrook will not be traded. And when they made this trade for Russell Westbrook and you sacrifice so much of your resources with regards to draft assets, players, depth on your bench, there's absolutely no plan B. Once you do that, there's no plan B. The Lakers have to simply make it work. And this is one of the reasons why I believe we've already heard LeBron James come out and say he would like to again, try this again and try to run it back again with Russell Westbrook next season. But again, there's really not much light at the end of the tunnel in regards to trade, the potential trades. And unfortunately, if the Lakers are able to successfully trade Russell Westbrook, it will now be their turn to get the short end of the stick. And they will be the ones getting shafted, which again, it will ease the minds of Laker fans because Russell Westbrook is no longer on that roster. But that team, which is already shorthanded as of now, which is already old as of now, filled with just minimum contracts for the players that can no longer defend. Imagine what this roster would look like without the likes of Russell Westbrook. And with when making a trade, you get little to no compensation back. Plus, you leverage more of your future because you have to give up so many draft picks just to shed his contract. Does it make sense to do that? Because you have LeBron James on this roster, they're essentially in a situation where they have to chase rings at all costs. How far will Jeannie Buss and this ownership group go in leveraging more of their future just to help LeBron James chase more rings? They're in a very desolate situation right now. I don't know what they can do. Again, I've kind of thrown out there what I think they should do. And there's even been NBA analysts who kind of speculated the same. I honestly believe that the only realistic trade that they have to really make this team better would be to trade Anthony Davis. But again, because Laker fans have bonded with him to such a degree because he was able to help them get that chip in 2020, they don't want to see him go. And when you look at some of the best teams in the NBA, some of the best organizations, and even the Lakers have done this. The best organizations are masterful at allowing superstar players go right before they start to hit that downturn. The Lakers did that with Shaq, which ultimately turned out to be a great move. And we've seen that happen with even with a guy like Mike Conley, how he was traded to the Utah Jazz before he started to significantly decline. And there's a number of other star players where we've seen this happen with over time. And I think Anthony Davis, I think that should ultimately be the strategy. But today we have to cater to the thoughts and emotions of Laker fans that simply want to see Russell Westbrook go. I want you guys hit me up in the comments. Let me know what you think about those three trade offers. Again, I've looked at all the scenarios out there. I've looked at how it benefits other teams, how it would benefit the Lakers. And these are ultimately the only trade packages that actually make sense where the money works. And you're not compromising another team to such a degree that it looks like a video game trade. But as FYF Sportsman, it's been another great podcast episode. I appreciate you guys joining the show. Make sure you sub up to whatever happened to the news TV. Link to that channel is going to be in the description of the video where we go live and we touch on other topics, entertainment news. We still even actually touch on sports over there as well. But, you know, the conversations are much more broad. We're still going to do our thing over here going live. All right. We got our live streams. We got more NBA highlight videos coming. So make sure you're tuning in here to FYF Sports for your NBA playoffs updates. All right. Follow us on Instagram, Twitter to make sure you get those notifications when we drop new videos. But again, appreciate you guys tuning in for the show. Let me know your thoughts about Russell Westbrook. Do you have other trade ideas that you think will work? And again, if I want to know how many people out there are thinking along the same lines as I am, I don't believe Westbrook gets traded. It's just not going to happen. But if you feel he is, let me know what trade packages you've been able to create. All right. It's FYF Sportsman has been another podcast episode. We will be back with more sports and news. But until then, it's FYF Sports. And we out.