Lakers Rumors: Russell Westbrook's Trade Value 'Extremely Negative,' Exec Says

An unnamed NBA executive says Los Angeles Lakers point guard Russell Westbrook's trade value is "extremely negative."

Michael Scotto relayed the exec's remarks on The HoopsHype Podcast:

"Right now, his trade value is extremely negative. All it takes, however, is one team to be desperate to add talent and have bad contracts to make it happen. The reality is that 95 percent of teams view that as a terrible contract right now. They're not doing that unless they're dumping a bunch of stuff."

Westbrook has a player option for $47.1 million in 2022-23. If he takes it, he'll become a free agent in 2023.

Westbrook could decline the option and enter free agency this offseason, but that seems unlikely given his struggles this year.

The nine-time All-Star, nine-time All-NBA player, two-time scoring champion and 2016-17 NBA MVP has a decorated resume that will land him in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. He's a member of the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team and stood as one of the game's best players not long ago.

However, it hasn't worked out with the Lakers, who just finished a 33-49 season and parted ways with head coach Frank Vogel.

Westbrook's 15.0 player efficiency rating was the worst mark of his 14-year career, per Basketball Reference. He posted a negative offensive box plus/minus mark for the first time since his rookie season in 2008-09 as well as his worst defensive box plus/minus since that season.

The Lakers landed Westbrook in a big deal with the Washington Wizards to form a new big three with him, Anthony Davis and LeBron James, but the latter two missed a combined 68 games, largely due to injury.

The new pieces didn't jell on the Lakers, who couldn't obtain any consistency with all the moving parts of their lineup and rotation.

Westbrook wants to run it back and see where things go in 2022-23:

But it's also possible the Lakers decide to move on and reconstruct the roster as best they can after this year. For now, Westbrook is still a Laker as L.A. tries to find answers to its multitude of problems.