Lakers News: Patrick Beverley, Russell Westbrook Have Broken The Ice
Ever since your Los Angeles Lakers finalized the trade that sent disappointing swingman Talen Horton-Tucker and the minimum salary of defense-first role player Stanley Johnson to the Utah Jazz in exchange for veteran 3-and-D point guard Patrick Beverley, the internet (and this website) has been fraught with rampant speculation that 2021-22 starting L.A. point guard Russell Westbrook will be dealt away.
After all, the 6'3" UCLA product, a former nine-time All-Star and the 2017 MVP, fell off mightily last year, to the point where his fit on the Lakers seemed impossibly out of sorts.
In the ensuing days following the deal, Patrick Beverley and LeBron James both tweeted out messages of support to Russell Westbrook. Meanwhile, Jeanie Buss failed to mention him when talking about the season ahead, although she made sure to register her excitement for the return of... Kendrick Nunn. No word had leaked from Westbrook's camp with regards to whether he and his presumed replacement as a starter, Beverley had talked. The duo famously share an acrimonious history.
Substack scribe Marc Stein reports (Twitter link) that, per his NBA sources, the two point guards had in fact spoken in the days since Beverley joined the club.
So does this intel signify nothing, something or everything?
The Lakers may take significant steps to extricate themselves from the Westbrook situation, be that trading him to a rebuilding team along with future draft capital or, barring that, inactivating him and sending him away from the team to cash checks as a permanent DNP. Beverley at this point is the better player, and more importantly, the cleaner fit alongside Lakers stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
If Westbrook is out the door anyway, one way or another, what was the point of the conversation?
The possibility exists that the Lakers decide to utilize Westbrook, still an athletic player (relatively speaking, though he appears to have lost a step in that department) and a good passer and rebounder, in a bench role this season. Whether he would be open to such a demotion remains to be seen (this reporter remains skeptical). Maybe Beverley was just trying to break the ice and make something of a peace offering. We may never know for sure.
Regardless of who instigated the contact and what exactly was said, the fact that the two made an effort to move on from their nearly-decade-long beef at least feels like a nice gesture. This reporter is going to rule this news as more or less "nothing." If Wesbrook remains a Laker on opening night, I'll upgrade that to "something."
