The Utah Jazz, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Los Angeles Lakers swapped point guards in their three-team trade. The recently concluded trade involved eight players as per Adrian Wojnarowski.
According to the terms, Jarred Vanderbilt, D’Angelo Russell, and Malik Beasley will leave the Timberwolves. The players will now become a part of the Los Angeles Lakers.
On the other hand, the Utah Jazz will acquire Damian Jones, Russell Westbrook, and Juan Toscano-Anderson.
Similarly, the Utah Jazz will send Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Mike Conley to the Timberwolves. Once the trade concludes, the Utah Jazz are expected to get Westbrook as well.
The Los Angeles Clippers, along with the Chicago Bulls, are also expected to show an offer to Westbrook. With the deal, Westbrook’s term with the LA Lakers has finally come to an end. The player started rough with the team and never seemed to have recovered.
Given the sheer scale of the trade, most NBA enthusiasts closely followed the development. Several NBA sportsbooks also covered the trade seeing it involved the Lakers, the Timberwolves, and the Jazz.
Despite Anthony Davis and LeBron James reportedly advocating for the player, Westbrook’s style has not bode well with the Lakers at all. It even saw Frank Vogel, the head coach losing the position after failing to integrate Westbrook.
Darvin Ham, the new head coach, benched the player for the season, where Westbrook faced less scrutiny. Once the player completed a year with the team, the rumors of Westbrook being part of a swap started surfacing.
However, the player’s enormous 44 million dollars salary made it hard for any team to acquire the player. Now that D’Angelo is reuniting with the team, the Lakers might be eyeing a better outlook.
Similar assumptions can be made for both the Timberwolves and the Jazz, as the teams have acquired crucial players from the trade.
