Russell Westbrook Is No Longer A Laker After A Massive 3 Team Trade Between The Jazz/Timberwolves/Lakers Sends Him To Utah

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And there it is! We knew it was only a matter of time before the Lakers pulled a trigger on something with the deadline being tomorrow. The second LeBron said he could still win titles with "any franchise" last night, you knew that meant the Lakers could see the time had come to make something happen. We then immediately got a report of a little dust up between Russell Westbrook and Darvin Ham, and whaddaya know, now he's traded. 

I think it's pretty obvious this is a really good trade for the Lakers. They turned Westbrook and only one of those picks into Beasley/Vanderbilt/DLo. That's a pretty good haul even if it pains me to say so. They get an upgrade at point guard, a shooter, and a young versatile big all while finally getting out of the Russell Westbrook business. I can hate on the Lakers all I want, that's a damn good return and certainly shows LeBron you're still trying. They also didn't have to give up that 2029 pick, so they technically could do more tomorrow.

Will it matter? The Lakers do have some climbing to do since they are now 2 games behind the 10 seed, and if you want to start talking a top 6 seed you're looking at a 4 game hole. Not insurmountable, but tell me what AD I'm getting. If it's the one we saw last night, none of this truly matters. If he's engaged and a top 10 guy? At least the Lakers are more equipped to actually make things interesting.

If I'm the Wolves, why are you still doing trades with Danny Ainge? Did you learn nothing from the trade you made 4 months ago that clearly was a bad idea? What's the benefit here for them? Mike Conley? DLo is having a better season I'd say, especially as of late. How does this help you stay in the Play In or get into the top 6? The Wolves have too many wins to think about Wemby, so they sort of need to make the playoffs. I just don't really understand what MIN is doing, but maybe there's more from them over the next few days?

For The Jazz, Ainge ultimately got what he wanted. He got another 1st round pick (top 4 protected), unloaded some money and can move along with his rebuild. 

Where Westbrook goes from here is anyone's guess, I'm sure you'll hear teams like the Heat and whatnot are interested, and since he won't cost much someone is going to take a chance. Bring him off the bench and see what happens, that worked at times this season in LA.

This is the beauty of the trade deadline. There's nothing like the juice of a big time trade and we still have a full day to go. The bandaid has been ripped off and I'm ready to get nuts. 

With that, the Russell Westbrook Lakers era has come to an end, it was a disaster and probably should have never happened in the first place. I do wonder who they'll blame now when things still don't go well since we all know it's not going to be LeBron. My guess is AD. Him or Darvin Ham. 

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Good luck!