Podcast: How the Russell Westbrook trade might actually help the Lakers
Russell Westbrook is going to join the Lakers. There has been a lot of discussion of what he doesn’t do, but what positives will he bring?
Well, Russell Westbrook appears to be heading to the Los Angeles Lakers after an NBA Draft day for the ages. Rob Pelinka paid heavily in the deal, sending Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Montrezl Harrell, plus the No. 22 pick (Isaiah Jackson), but that was always going to be the case because of Westbrook’s enormous contract.
Now, the focus turns to making the talent work.
This week in the Lakers Lounge, Harrison and I discussed the Lakers’ general approach to team building, which focuses solely on talent with the intent to make it fit later. Sometimes it works and you have LeBron James and Anthony Davis, arguably the best-fitting superstar tandem ever. Sometimes it doesn’t, and you have Dennis Schröder, Montrezl Harrell and Andre Drummond no-showing in the postseason.
In this case, if the talent is going to work, a few things absolutely have to happen: Davis is probably going to have to play a lot more center. The Lakers are going to have to focus on shooting when rounding out this roster. Russ, LeBron and AD have to figure out the pecking order, especially late in games.
There’s probably some other stuff that we talked about, but it’s past 1 am my time and I’m tired.
Harrison and I discussed all that, the insane day overall given how the reports came out regarding what the Lakers might do and plenty more, including Harrison’s most embarrassing sports moment.
You can listen to all that and more on the full episode in the player embedded below, and to make sure you never miss a single show moving forward, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts.
And for a short-form recap pod, check out Lakers Lowdown, in which Anthony Irwin recaps the previous day’s news and gets you ready for the day ahead in LakerLand, every weekday morning on the Silver Screen & Roll Podcast feed. You can follow Anthony on Twitter @AnthonyIrwinLA.