Lakers legend Magic Johnson revealed in a show that Demar DeRozan originally had the opportunity to join the Lakers before the 2021-22 season and teamed up with LeBron James and Anthony Davis:
He had to take on the responsibility of deRozan going to the Bulls instead of the Lakers because DeRozan wanted to play for the Lakers, and DeRozan could have joined the Lakers instead of the Bulls. But when Russell and LeBron began talking, they rejected DeRozan and chose Westbrook. ”
"The more important issue with choosing DeRozan is that you have to keep role players like Caruso and KCP, they're our best defensive players and they're all gone, that's why we're a bad defensive team. But if you sign DeRozan and trade Kuzma back for Hield, we can play the Western Conference Finals. ”
As Magic Johnson talked about, if the Lakers choose DeRozan, they also have the opportunity to trade Hielder with Kuzma, but the Lakers eventually gave up this way of building a lineup and instead chose to trade Westbrook.
In fact, so far this season, there is indeed a lot of news that LeBron James is an important member of the promotion of the Lakers to trade Russell Westbrook, as the Magician said above, LeBron James should bear the responsibility for the Lakers' failure this season.
However, according to the US media Ryan Rusilo, the LeBron James team is currently trying to change the statement that James is an important driving force in the Westbrook trade:
It's just that the current situation is that the LeBron James team has difficulty changing james's push for a deal involving Westbrook, especially after the revelation of Magic Johnson, James can largely only bear the Lakers' failure this season.