The Lakers had an "internal discussion" about the russell Westbrook trade.

In a report Monday, the Lakers were identified as one of the teams interested in Ben Simmons' deal, and it's clear that whatever the likelihood of them publicly denying it, at least to some extent willing to trade Russell Westbrook. Maybe they didn't actively want to trade him, but he was the only one who could get Simmons' salary in an intra-season trade without moving Anthony Davis or LeBron James (which didn't happen).

On Tuesday, Jack Fisher of the Grandstand Report explicitly confirmed the speculation in his column on the league's latest deal intelligence, reporting that the Lakers had "internal discussions about a possible trade in Westbrook":

League sources told B/R that the trio of LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook has not converged as the Lakers had hoped, and that Los Angeles has had internal discussions about Russell Westbrook's deal. But moving Westbrook and the remaining $91 million from his two-year contract seems unlikely.

But while it's not surprising that the Lakers are at least open to the idea of seeking a theoretical promotion on their third star — after all, every team wants to get better and consider most of their options, and the Lakers are no exception — an intra-season trade involving Westbrook feels very unlikely for several reasons.

On the one hand, Westbrook has made $44.2 million this season, the highest-paid of the Lakers and one of the highest-paid players in the league. Purely mathematically, with a team with a minimum squad size limit and playing the game, it will be very difficult to trade him during the season and still have to try to match the money with multiple players in the trade. If they don't send back a player with almost the same income, then these teams have to be very, very hopeful that Westbrook is willing to go through such crazy roster gymnastics.

This doesn't happen very often in the middle of the season, ruling out some of the only realistic candidates, in terms of money:

Kevin Luck and Ricky Rubio's salaries will match Westbrook's expensive deal, reuniting James with former championship rivals. But sources say the Cavaliers have little interest in the structure, which the two teams have yet to discuss. Aside from the sheer number of Love, few players other than John Wall can trade and are close to earnings in Westbrook, which was traded to Washington last summer.

One of the players was Ben Simmons. The Athletic reported on The Los Angeles' interest in Simmons on Monday, and Westbrook's salary, in addition to those of James and Davis, was the only number on the Lakers' books that could match Simmons' own high-stake deal. League sources told B/R that even so, Westbrook is not a player with hopes of returning from the 76ers, and the conversation with the Lakers has never been deep.

But even beyond that report and those math issues, the Lakers trade for Westbrook may not happen for the simple reason: It would require them to stab a former local kid — who so publicly returned to Los Angeles to celebrate home, and the guy LeBron James really wanted — in the back.

In terms of the perception that this team prefers to be a league star, dumping Westbrook in the middle of the season semi-disrespectfully to a place he doesn't want to go, after he's worked so hard to get back to this team, the Lakers aren't likely to do so unless the returns are so good that they can't resist. Especially considering that the team has started to look a little better lately, with their Big Three James, Davis and Westbrook only appearing as a trio in 13 games, with little time to really figure things out.

Maybe the team will dump Westbrook in a few months and make all the hesitations and reasoning mentioned above seem silly, but for now, the main thing here is that the Lakers are willing to consider all of their options — because they should — but it still feels very unlikely that Westbrook will be diverted at any time before the next offseason. Fasten your seatbelts as the crazy season of trading rumors officially arrives, but for now, it could all be smoke rather than flames.