Lakers: NBA Insider Calls for LA to Cut Russell Westbrook

This is certainly an angle to take on the Westbrook situation.

The Russell Westbrook situation might be the most interesting storyline of this upcoming offseason. With the Lakers clearly ready to be done with Russ, there are so many different routes they could go. 

For starters, they could try to trade him. That sounds like it will cost them a first-round pick if reports are accurate. Teams want a first-rounder in order to cover the final year of his contract. They could also just suck it up and have him play in 2022-23.

Or, the Lakers could literally cut him, as suggested by The Athletic's Jovan Buha. He asserts that the best thing they could do for this team is to send him home on day one, a move that would be wild to watch. 

"There is no salvaging the situation. He’s unwilling to adapt — and clearly unaware that he needs to. Unless the Lakers are willing to punt on another James-Davis season, their best option is to either trade Westbrook — and send out a first-round pick or two if the market doesn’t soften — or to send him home and proceed without him next season.Westbrook can no longer carry the burden of successfully being the offensive focal point, which is precisely what the Lakers brought him in to do when James and/or Davis miss time due to injury."

That would be one of the craziest moves that we have seen from this Lakers front office in recent years. Eating up that much money for a year might be worth it though. Especially if their next best option is to give up a first-rounder. 

The Lakers want out of the Russell Westbrook experiment. That much is clear right now.