According to the Russell Westbrook report, the Lakers have a “mutual interest” to find a defender in a new team this off-season

Russell Westbrook shot 5 of 17 from the field on Tuesday in a disappointing 109-104 loss at home to the Dallas Mavericks. This performance was hardly extraordinary. In 12 times Westbrook has finished matches with more misses than goals from the field. He was eliminated late in several games due to his poor game, and his plus-minus against the Mavericks (-8) was greater than the result that the Lakers lost the game with (5). At 27-34, all sorts of faint hopes that the Lakers were still holding on to the dispute quickly faded. In the very near future, their focus will have to shift to next season.

And if both sides have their way, they will prepare for next season separately. Jake Fisher of the Bleacher Report says there is a “mutual interest in finding a new home in Westbrook this summer,” which will potentially end one of the most disastrous experiments in Lakers history.

The Houston Rockets were interested in a potential Westbrook exchange with John Wall in the trading deadline, provided the Lakers provided adequate compensation for the draft, but Fischer said the talks “did not generate much strength”. At the time, rumors suggested that the Rockets wanted a first-round choice in 2027 from the Lakers, or at least the right to exchange elections this season. The Lakers could only legally trade in one first round at the deadline: 2027 or 2028.

When the mid-season comes, the seven-year rule will allow the Lakers access to their first-round selection in 2029 for commercial purposes, and Westbrook itself will have an expiring contract. This will make it much more marketable. There will be teams with many long-term contracts that clog their books, which are interested in trading with Westbrook primarily to clear space for 2023. If the Lakers implement both options, they could potentially add more players of initial caliber.

An alternative that Fischer explored would be to use the stretching provision to abandon Westbrook, but there would be little practical benefit from doing so. This approach will remove Westbrook from the team and allow them to distribute his $ 47 million salary over the next three seasons, but even if they do, they will not be able to generate real room for restraint in 2022 because LeBron James and Anthony Davis are making maximum wages. What stretching Westbrook would do is prevent the Lakers from maximizing their upcoming flexibility in 2023 or use Westbrook’s salary as an off-season trading tool.

If Westbrook will leave this team in the off-season, it will be through an exchange. It seems that both sides want one. Now all you have to do is find a partner.