Lakers: NBA Insider Says a Russell Westbrook Trade is "Extremely Unlikely"

The Lakers options for trading Russ are quite limited.

Life is all about expectations. The Lakers expected to be a whole lot better than one game over .500 in early January. Los Angeles expected to be at the top of the West after acquiring former league MVP Russell Westbrook this summer.

Things have not unfolded as planned for the Lakers nor Westbrook. Even when Anthony Davis was healthy, the LeBron-AD-Russ experiment yielded underwhelming results.

Los Angeles has been in play-in tournament territory for most of this season.

Sam Amick, a Senior NBA Writer, reported on Wednesday that general manager Rob Pelinka and the Lakers front office have quietly pursued trade options for Westbrook.

Amick also noted the tremendous challenge of identifying a team willing to take on Westbrook and his mammoth contract. Westbrook is owed $44.2M this season and has a $47M player option for the 2022-2023 season.

“A deal appears extremely unlikely before the Feb. 10 trade deadline, if only because his deal that was once seen by so many as un-tradable is such a massive obstacle.”

Now, the Westbrook-contract-is-not-movable argument, albeit valid, has been proven wrong before. Westbrook has been traded three times since he signed his super-max extension with Oklahoma City in 2017.

Another reputable NBA source, Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer, commented on the improbability of a fourth Westbrook trade in December on an episode of the Ringer's Ryen Russillo podcast.

“ There’s not many options out there. That’s for damn sure. There’s probably what, one, two, three teams that you could even come up with some hypothetical [trade] with Westbrook?”

In the NBA, things can change rapidly, but right now, Westbrook isn’t going anywhere fast.