Rob Pelinka made the Los Angeles Lakers a more complete roster at this 2023 trade deadline and the first man out is Russell Westbrook. After trading for him 2 summers ago, it’s clear that LeBron James next to a player who hoops like Russ just wouldn’t fit. James needs spacing and the 2017 MVP provides the exact opposite of that.
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This isn’t to say that Russell was to blame for the purple and gold’s misfortunes. The team as a whole has been marred with injuries along with the fact that it simply wasn’t a well constructed roster top to bottom.
With the trade deadline in sights, the Lakers pulled the plug on the Westbrook experiment and traded him to the Utah Jazz in a three-team deal that involved the Minnesota Timberwolves. In return, the 2020 NBA champs got D’Angelo Russell (a former Laker), Malik Beasley, and Jarred Vanderbilt.
Bryce Maximus James shows his emotions towards the Russell Westbrook trade
Bryce Maximus James was in attendance at last night’s historic Lakers-Thunder game that saw LeBron James pass up Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA’s all time regular season scorer. That game also marked the last time fans would ever see Russell Westbrook in a Lakers uniform.
Following this trade, Bryce took to his Instagram to post a picture of Russ edited into a Utah Jazz jersey. His reaction was plain and simple: “L”.
Bryce… 😳 pic.twitter.com/5zX4p9S7Dz
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) February 9, 2023
It’s unclear what he’s referring to as an ‘L’ here. Does he mean that the trade as a whole that resulted in Westbrook being packaged to a different team was a loss for the Lakers? Or does he simply not like the jersey swap? Perhaps he didn’t agree with the caption the post put up, stating the Jazz can now make it to the Playoffs by adding Russ.
Westbrook clearly does hold a special place in the James boys’ hearts as many years ago, both him and Bronny chose their jersey numbers based on their favorite players. Bronny wears ‘0’ because of Westbrook while Bryce chose ‘30’ because of Stephen Curry.
Does Russell Westbrook play for the Utah Jazz?
It is very likely that Russell Westbrook gets bought out by the Utah Jazz. This coincides with the Los Angeles Clippers wanting to buy out John Wall, as per Marc Stein.
Both of these reports come after it was said that the Clips have interest in signing Russell. If this were to happen, Brodie wouldn’t have to move out of his LA mansion as he’d be playing in the same city, for the rival team.
