Argument between Russell Westbrook and Darvin Ham could be the final straw?
By Ian Levy
The Lakers have been exploring trade possibilities for Russell Westbrook. An argument with head coach Darvin Ham could force their hand.
Lost in the celebration of LeBron James breaking the NBA’s all-time scoring record Tuesday night was a more troubling report for the Lakers. According to Adrian Wojnarowski, “Russell Westbrook and coach Darvin Ham had a brief, heated verbal exchange in the halftime locker room on Tuesday vs. OKC. Ham expressed frustration with how Westbrook lingered on the playing floor after getting subbed out of game late in second quarter.”
Westbrook has mostly done what was asked of him this season, doing his best to adapt to the bench role Ham gave him. There were subsequent reports that Ham and Westbrook squashed their beef by the end of the game but for a team with vast pressure to make a trade, even a small fracture could be enough to push things one way or the other.
What can the Lakers get in a trade for Russell Westbrook?
The unfortunate bottom line is that no teams are really pursuing Westbrook in a trade because they think he’ll help their current team. Almost any team that takes him is likely buying him out or holding him until his contract expires at season’s end, the cost for acquiring one or both of the Lakers 2027 and 2029 first-round picks.
That trade package has been mentioned in all sorts of rumors but at this point, the most likely packages the Lakers could get for it would be Chris Paul and Jae Crowder, Fred VanVleet and salary filler like Chris Boucher and Thad Young, or Mike Conley and Malik Beasley from the Jazz. To be clear, we know about the appeal of those packages to the Lakers than we do about the willingness of the Raptors, Jazz or Suns to actually make those deals.
The trade deadline is Thursday, Feb. 9 at 3:00 p.m. ET so we’ll only have to wait a few more hours to find out.
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