“Trading Russell Westbrook for John Wall is the most realistic”: Marc J Spears dishes on the best available trade for the Lakers star ahead of Feb 10th deadline

The only possible trade for the Lakers, according to Spears, is trading Russell Westbrook for John Wall as their contracts match well. 

The Los Angeles Lakers took quite the chance when it came to ditching the Buddy Hield trade to acquire Russell Westbrook this past offseason. According to reports, LeBron James himself vetoed this trade for the 2017 MVP last season. 

Over halfway into this 2021-22 NBA season and the Lakers aren’t close to having a record that a championship contender should have at this point in the season. The one caveat here would be that Anthony Davis has missed nearly 20 games due to a knee injury.

Also read: “I hated Kobe Bryant because he denied me of my ultimate goal”: Reggie Miller expressed his disdain for the Lakers legend after losing to him in 2000

So, their ‘big 3’ of Russell Westbrook, LeBron James, and Anthony Davis hasn’t played nearly enough games to judge how they would perform in the postseason. In the 15 games and 291 minutes that they have played together, they were merely a +1.5. 

Before AD can even take to the floor once again, a plethora of rumblings about the Lakers looking to fire Frank Vogel and trade Westbrook have been surfacing these past few weeks. 

Marc Spears on trading Russell Westbrook for John Wall. 

Russell Westbrook is making a whopping $44.2 million this ‘22 season. John Wall is making an extremely similar amount this season at $44.3 million. According to Marc J. Spears on the Hoop Collective, a trade between the Rockets and the Lakers for the two point guards is what makes the most sense. 

“I was told that they have a couple on the table, but the only one that really has some realistic potential to it is with the Lakers for Russ. To me, as of today, this is the only trade for John Wall. If it happens, and Westbrook does come back, the Rockets get somebody that at least they know,” said Spears. 

Also read: “I cried when my mom made me practice basketball because I wanted to play football”: Allen Iverson describes his intense love for the game of football over basketball

Chris Vernon had quite a lot of fun with this hypothetical during an episode of ‘The Mismatch’ a couple months ago and was perhaps the first to publicly put this idea out there. 

Having been traded for previously during the 2020 offseason, having Russell Westbrook get traded for John Wall yet again would result in one of the greatest days in NBA Twitter history.