Lakers News: D'Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley, Jarred Vanderbilt Heading To LA In 3-Team Trade
It happened!
After first being rumored earlier today, Shams Charania of The Athletic reports that your Los Angeles Lakers are now finalizing a three-team trade that will ship out non-Sixth Man of the Year Russell Westbrook's bloated expiring $47.1 million contract and one future first round draft pick to the Utah Jazz and one second round pick to the Minnesota Timberwolves, in exchange for combo guard D'Angelo Russell, swingman Malik Beasley, and frisky young power forward Jarred Vanderbilt.
Per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the first round Lakers selection being shipped out will be a top four-protected 2027 pick. Woj's colleague Zach Lowe reports that the pick will become a 2027 second rounder if LA does land in the top four of that year's draft.
Wojnarowski adds that little-used reserve Lakers forward Juan Toscano-Anderson and never-used bench big Damian Jones are being shipped out to Minnesota in the deal. Jazzman Nickeil Alexander-Walker is also being traded to the Timberwolves.
This is a really solid deal for the Lakers. It shores up the club's depth everywhere, gets rid of a player whose presence had just become totally untenable of late in Westbrook, improves the current club's ceiling, and allows LA to maintain one of its two tradable future first round picks (in 2029), which the club can either dangle in another deal (Patrick Beverley for now remains a Laker, for instance) or hold onto for future safekeeping.
Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report reveals that Westbrook is likely to be bought out of the remainder of his contract by the Jazz, which will leave him free to sign with any team he chooses.
