By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Just hours after the report about the incident between Russell Westbrook and coach Darvin Ham, Russell Westbrook was on the move.
As Shams Charania tweeted “the Lakers, Jazz, and Timberwolves are in discussions on a three-team deal that would send D’Angelo Russell to the Lakers, Russell Westbrook and draft compensation such as a first-round pick to Utah and Mike Conley Jr. to Minnesota”.
The Lakers also get Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt in the trade, while the Timberwolves will receive also Nickeil Alexander-Walker and picks.
In addition to Westbrook, the Jazz will receive Juan Toscano-Anderson, Damian Jones, and a 2027 Lakers first-round pick that is top-four protected, sources said. If the Lakers’ pick to the Jazz is not conveyed in 2027 — if it falls into the top four — the pick immediately converts to a 2027 second-round pick.
This move completed the experiment of the Lakers’ big three with LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Westbrook without producing anything significant.
On the other hand, D’Angelo Russell will return to the Lakers who had picked him at no.2 of the 2015 NBA draft, but two years later traded him to the Nets in exchange for Brook Lopez and the rights to Kyle Kuzma.
Ironically, both Kuzma and Lopez have also left the Lakers. Also, Magic Johnson, the director of Basketball Operations of the Lakers at the time, admitted some years later Russell’s Snapchat incident with Nick Young, in which Russell secretly recorded Young admitting that he had cheated on then-fiancee Iggy Azalea, played a role in his decision to trade the player.