The Los Angeles Lakers trade for Russell Westbrook is widely viewed as one of the worst trades in recent memory. Hindsight is always 20/20, but with how bad it’s worked out for the Lakers, that doesn’t really matter anymore.
Westbrook just hasn’t been able to fit in with LA, and although injuries have hurt them, their season has been disappointing regardless. But according to a former employee of the team, they could have gotten a different player instead.
Lakers Rumors: LeBron chose Russell Westbrook over DeMar DeRozan
No, this isn’t talking about the Buddy Hield trade (although that was brought up). On a recent edition of ESPN’s Get Up, Laker legend and former President of Basketball Operations Magic Johnson said that they could have gotten DeMar DeRozan. (H/T Bleacher Report, Harrison Faigen of Silver Screen & Roll)
According to Johnson, he got a call from DeRozan’s agents this past offseason saying that DeRozan wanted to return to his hometown state and play for the Lakers. In turn, he informed the Lakers of this.
However, once LeBron James and Anthony Davis began talks with Russell Westbrook, they nixed that deal and chose to team up with him instead of DeRozan.
Again, hindsight is 20/20, and Westbrook had a better season than DeRozan did last year, but there isn’t an NBA fan out there who would rather have Westbrook than DeRozan right now. (Outside of the hardcore Westbrook fans.)
Johnson went on to say that the Lakers could have signed DeRozan, kept their role players, and also could have traded Kyle Kuzma for Buddy Hield. He stated that, with that core, the Lakers could be in the Western Conference Finals this year.
Instead, the Lakers might not even make it into the Play-In. The San Antonio Spurs have surged ahead of them in the standings and are looking to play spoiler.
Meanwhile, DeRozan is having an MVP-caliber season with the Chicago Bulls, leading them to potentially a top-five seed in a packed Eastern Conference this season.
It’s never great to dwell on the past, but it’s safe to say that Bulls fans everywhere should be thanking LeBron right now (as weird as that sounds to say out loud).