The Los Angeles Lakers may have finally found a trade partner for point guard Russell Westbrook. The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported on Wednesday afternoon that the Lakers, Minnesota Timberwolves and Utah Jazz are “in talks” on a deal that would send Westbrook and draft compensation to Utah, with D’Angelo Russell making his return to the Lakers.
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Lakers Championship Odds Rise With Russell Westbrook News
The Lakers championship odds got as high as +2000 when they were the reported front-runners to land Kyrie Irving in a trade. Those odds dipped to +5000 when the Dallas Mavericks landed Irving. Los Angeles currently sits at +3000 (per BetMGM) with a Westbrook trade reportedly close.
Westbrook has had some flashes of brilliance as a sixth man in Darvin Ham‘s rotation this season, but his offensive efficiency continues to hinder LA, and fans have continuously been calling for a trade since the point guard struggled mightily last season. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Westbrook had a heated exchange with Ham due to his body expression during the loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday night. He is averaging 15.9 points, 7.5 assists and 6.2 rebounds in 28.7 minutes per game off the bench but was expected to be involved in any trade that would have sent Irving to Los Angeles.
D’Angelo Russell was drafted with the Lakers’ second pick in the 2015 NBA Draft but was sent to the Brooklyn Nets in one of many deals that would eventually open up the necessary cap space to land LeBron James. Russell has since turned into an All-Star, averaging 17.9 points, 6.2 assists and 3.1 rebounds per game with the T-Wolves this season.
Russell has been in contact with James in the past and admitted that he went to the new NBA scoring kings for advice in the Summer of 2019.
“I actually reached out to LeBron this summer,” he said to Bleacher Report’s Leo Sepkowitz. Russell asked: “‘What’s the best thing for becoming consistent?’ He’s like, ‘You have to be prepared mentally to go out and dominate every game, and then your teammates will follow that.’
Now, Russell could be joining up with LeBron James in the place that got rid of him years ago. And according to the latest Lakers championship odds, the partnership with Russell should go significantly better than it has with Westbrook thus far.
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