'Hell No!' Mavs Reveal View on Adding Lakers' Russell Westbrook
The Los Angeles Lakers and Russell Westbrook both held high expectations for the 2021-22 NBA season. Things went about as poorly as possible. Their 33-49 record wasn't even good enough to qualify for the play-in tournament.
Westbrook, 33, showed an unwillingness to adapt his game even though he knew it would be required when pushing the Washington Wizards to trade him to play with LeBron James' Lakers. Westbrook's poor shooting, low efficiency brand of basketball continued last season by shooting 29.8 percent from 3-point range with an average of 3.8 turnovers per game.
After deciding to sever ties with his longtime agent Thad Faucher, Westbrook became the subject of a revealing statement from his former representation. It revealed Westbrook's desire for a trade from the Lakers against Faucher's recommendation. Meanwhile, all of that occurred after questions were raised about Westbrook's relationship with James after their lack of acknowledgement of each other at Summer League.
On the latest episode of "Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective" podcast, they discussed where Westbrook could end up if he were to become available. Windhorst was told by some executives in speculation that a possible option could be the Dallas Mavericks.
"I've asked some executives 'where could [Westbrook] possibly fit?' And I've only got a couple of lukewarm answers and I'm not defending these answers, you can knock 'em right down and I'm not going to push back," Windhorst said. "One of them, I'm told, is Dallas."
Tim MacMahon checked in with his Mavericks sources to clarify if the the team would consider acquiring Westbrook, even after losing Jalen Brunson in free agency.
"So you guys told me that you'd heard that and I checked in, I got a very quick, 'Hell no,'" MacMahon said.
Even under the context of the possibility of the Mavericks having interest if Westbrook was a free agent, the answer was the same.
"Even then, I was told 'Hell no,'" McMahon said.
In the current NBA landscape, there just isn't much of an outlook for Westbrook. Many teams that are not title contenders want to tank for a top pick in a loaded 2023 NBA Draft class. There just aren't many teams trying to hunt for a play-in spot who need a point guard. If contenders like the Mavericks aren't interested either, the list of options surely becomes empty.
You can follow Grant Afseth on Twitter at @GrantAfseth.
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