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The Los Angeles Lakers opened the 2022-23 season with a 123-109 loss to the Golden State Warriors that wasn't really as close as it looks. The Warriors dominated the proceedings, and ran away with this game in the third quarter after the Lakers stuck around in the first half. Even though they were in this game at the time, Charles Barkley quickly demanded the Lakers needed to trade Russell Westbrook if they wanted to win anything this season at halftime during this contest.
Sure enough, Barkley's prediction would come true, as the Lakers fell apart in the third quarter, allowing Golden State to waltz to a victory. It had a similar feel to most of the 2021-22 season for L.A., and it was surely frustrating to watch the same problems that plagued this team last season pop up again to open the new season up.
The Lakers spent most of the offseason trying to unload Westbrook, but couldn't find a willing trade partner if it didn't involve them giving up their two remaining tradeable first round picks. It's certainly a steep price, but Barkley is right; the Lakers need to trade Westbrook as soon as possible, otherwise they will be setting themselves up for another disappointing campaign.
The Lakers need to heed Charles Barkley's advice and trade Russell Westbrook
It wasn't surprising to see the Lakers do everything in their power to get rid of Westbrook this offseason. He was horrible for L.A. last season, and it didn't really make sense to bring him back to try to figure things out this season. He was so bad offensively that he was nearly unplayable, and his defensive skills took a step back as well.
There were a couple of rumored deals that came and went, but it became clear that if the Lakers wanted to move Westbrook, they were going to have to attach their last two tradeable first-round picks (in 2027 and 2029) to their deal and send him to a rebuilding team for some rotation pieces. Los Angeles didn't seem too fond of that idea, and ultimately never pulled the trigger on a trade for Westbrook this offseason.
Yet after one game, the Lakers may want to reconsider that stance. Westbrook didn't necessarily have a bad game for L.A. (19 PTS, 11 REB, 4 AST, 1 STL, 7/12 FG) but it's becoming clear that this team simply cannot win with him as part of their rotation. L.A. stuck with Golden State early, but towards the end of the third quarter, they found themselves down by 27 points.
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Now it's worth noting that the Warriors are a very good team, but the Lakers should be just as good too. They are led by LeBron James and Anthony Davis after all. There's no reason Golden State should be going on 21-4 runs at any point in the game over the Lakers, especially when it seemed like they were just starting to find their way back into the game.
But this game was basically a carbon copy of what we saw from the Lakers last season. Even with James, Davis, and Westbrook all on the court at the same time, this team doesn't look competent at all. Westbrook and James are both too ball dominant to play alongside each other, and it gradually breaks down their offense.
Los Angeles' front office says they want to build a winner with James on their roster, but by holding onto Westbrook, they are blatantly ignoring that goal of theirs. They need to do everything they can to get back to their winning ways while they still have James, and while they made some nice moves to shore up their rotation this offseason, failing to move Westbrook has made all those other moves pointless.
First year head coach Darvin Ham is doing everything in his power to find a way to make Westbrook useful, including bringing him off the bench, but there's really no winning here. Even when brought off the bench, an idea he agreed to, Westbrook complained about how it played a role in causing his hamstring injury after last night's loss.
The Lakers cannot win with Westbrook on their roster. He's creating too much drama off the court, and he's not producing when he's on it either. Los Angeles is flailing trying to find ways to keep him involved when they would be better off without him on the floor.
Trading him is the easiest way to remove him from the team, and Charles Barkley hit the nail on the head. The Lakers don't look like a team capable of having fun playing basketball, and it's slowly killing their team. The easiest way to fix that is to trade Westbrook. Whether that will actually happen remains to be seen, but Los Angeles is playing with fire by holding onto Westbrook right now, and it's only a matter of time until it fully explodes in their face.
