Trading for Russell Westbrook under the fallback of draft picks will be too risky for the Indiana Pacers
For the Indiana Pacers to even spare the Los Angeles Lakers a glance on an offer around Russell Westbrook, they would have to:
- Be really turned off by the contracts of both Malcolm Brogdon and Buddy Hield,
- Fail on finding a taker for Brogdon and/or Hield, which is very unlikely (more on that later),
- Really like the future-proofing provided by the Lakers’ uncertain draft picks,
- Be really confident about the Lakers being very bad in 2027 and beyond
- Be very willing to absorb the financial repercussions of waiving and stretching Westbrook’s monstrous salary,
- Be really confident that they could find another taker for Westbrook instead, which is severely unlikely, or
- Be very willing to accommodate Westbrook and let him lead a Pacers team which already has a more efficient floor general to begin with in Tyrese Haliburton.
A lack of even one of the foregoing is enough to constitute a massive red flag that the Pacers could use to respond with a resounding “no”.
Also, it is rather puzzling that the Lakers are still packaging Westbrook as a franchise-altering player (in a good way) when his decline this season has clearly been more than a matter of basketball fit. There are numbers to back up the notion that his physical regression has began to hamper him substantially. There is a reason why he has donned four different jerseys in four consecutive years.
Westbrook badly needs a change of scenery for a better ending to his Hall of Fame career, but whether any other team volunteers to take him on and facilitate him with a necessary roster overturn is a massive question mark. And the Indiana Pacers hardly look like a franchise willing to take that on when they have just traded a win-now player in Domantas Sabonis on the deadline to elevate their capped ceiling.