Did the Lakers Just Save Their Season?

Acquiring Russell Westbrook was one of the biggest mistakes in the history of the Los Angeles Lakers. It required disassembling the core that led them to a title in 2020, and prevented them from pursuing superior talents. This season, the Lakers could have afforded Kentavious Caldwell-Pope ($14 million), Kyle Kuzma ($13 million), and Alex Caruso ($9 million), three cap casualties of the 2021 Westbrook trade, for less combined money than it cost them to have the polarizing point guard himself ($47 million) on the books this season. But now, Westbrook is finally gone in a move that could save the Lakers’ season.

On Wednesday night, the Lakers dealt Westbrook and a top-four protected 2027 first-round pick to the Utah Jazz in a three-team trade that brings D’Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley, and Jarred Vanderbilt to Los Angeles and sends veteran point guard Mike Conley to Minnesota.

Russell is the only big name in L.A.’s return for Westbrook, but he’s a sentimental one. Russell was drafted by the Lakers with the second pick in 2015 before essentially getting dumped for Lonzo Ball just two years later. He’s a better player now than he was then, and provides a lot of what the Lakers need as a secondary scorer behind LeBron James and Anthony Davis and an additional playmaking presence.

Russell will not need to change in dramatic ways that Westbrook failed to, simply because DLo is a quality shooter and Westbrook is the least efficient high-volume shooter in league history. Russell might take some unwarranted shots, but Westbrook took more unwarranted shots than anyone ever with no sense of when or why he should defer. LeBron’s guards are always empowered to score—from the Boobie Gibson and Mo Williams types to stars like Dwyane Wade and Kyrie Irving—and DLo will be no exception.

Beasley has been one of the NBA’s best shooters for multiple years now, making 39 percent of his catch-and-shoot 3s since 2018-19, the year his shot began to click. During that span, only Buddy Hield has tried more spot-up 3s, according to Second Spectrum. The Lakers whiffed on acquiring Hield (and Myles Turner) from the Pacers earlier this season, and they lost Malik Monk to the Kings last summer. Getting Beasley makes up for it.

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“Defensive stopper” isn’t a label Russell has ever earned. And though Beasley is solid on that end, he’s not elite either. But in the same way the Timberwolves are able to have a top-10 defensive rating with Rudy Gobert on the backline, and the Jazz are with Walker Kessler, Davis should continue to deter penetration and help clean up anything allowed by the Lakers on the perimeter.

This season, Los Angeles has one of the league’s best defenses as long as AD is on the court. And now he’ll be supported by Vanderbilt, who provides excellent defensive versatility. He’s 6-foot-8 but offers weakside rim protection and contagious energy. Effort is never a question with him. The Jazz used him as a center for long stretches this season, so the Lakers will now have the option to do the same with LeBron serving as the 4 when AD is off the floor.

The benefit of having a player like Vanderbilt is that he can also play with AD as a power forward. Vanderbilt entered the NBA as a non-threat to shoot 3s, and while he doesn’t threaten defenses, he can at least make them pay. He’s made 33.3 percent of his 3s this season, mostly from the corners. With his attentive cutting and connective passing, he offers other tools that will be valuable within the offense.

With only 27 games remaining this season, entering Wednesday’s action the Lakers were four games back from the no. 6 seed (and a guaranteed playoff spot) and only two games back from a spot in the play-in tournament. So they have some climbing to do, but the new influx of talent should help. Their post-trade depth chart will look something like this:

C: Davis, Thomas Bryant
PF: Vanderbilt, Rui Hachimura
SF: James, Lonnie Walker IV
SG: Beasley, Patrick Beverley
PG: Russell, Dennis Schröder

Hachimura turned out to be just a tease for Lakers fans given the significance of Wednesday’s acquisitions. It’s actually shocking that L.A. was able to pull this deal off for just one future first that is protected from landing in the top four. Even if the Lakers are terrible in 2026-27, they could still keep their pick. And if it doesn’t convert, it becomes just a second-round pick. This means that this coming offseason the Lakers will be able to trade their 2025 and 2029 first-round picks, and be able to offer swaps in 2028 and 2030, giving them flexibility to make more moves this summer.

The Lakers are clearly focused on the present, though. As long as Davis can perform like a top-10 player and as long as James continues to look like the player who made history Tuesday night, the Lakers still have time to make a run.