With the away defeat to the Suns, the Lakers completely lost the possibility and hope of advancing to the playoffs. When the song finally dispersed, the discussion about the Lakers' summer operation had just begun.
From the lineup point of view, the Lakers' personnel structure is very deformed, and the team building model of the three top salary giants makes them doomed to only fill the team list with a basic salary contract. James criticizes no matter how much, after all, standing on the court can also score. Thick eyebrow injuries are frequent, but he is only 28 years old. Therefore, in the end, only young master Wei, who has the highest annual salary in the league, but has a dismal performance, can only be the one who bears the pot.
From Westbrook's perspective, this season with the Lakers was the worst year of his career. His self-confidence and game execution have taken a serious hit. Although "competitive sports dishes are the original sin", Wei Shao's family has also been unjustifiably accused and insulted, which has made him very angry.
From the Lakers' point of view, whether they think the biggest responsibility for leading the team to this situation is the manager, injury or management decisions, Wei Shao must be the one who carries the pot. In this context, the Lakers are bound to break up with Wei Shao, but is this really easy?
Westbrook has player options this summer, and the probability he chooses to execute is as high as 99.99%. Even if his life is not satisfactory, giving up 47.1 million real money and silver is even more outrageous than his zombie dry pulling and throwing it on the timer.
In such a situation, the choice of the Lakers and Wei Shao's way of breaking up is nothing more than the following three:
1. Transactions
In the three off-seasons of 19, 20 and 21 years, Westbrook was traded consecutively, either voluntarily or forced. He also became the first MVP player in NBA history to be traded for three consecutive years. By the end of the season, Westbrook's deal value has fallen to the bottom and become the league's biggest junk contract.
After this year's draft, the Lakers have 27 and 29 in the first round. But in the context of James's aging thick eyebrows and unhealthy, the Lakers rushed to move such a distant first round, which is undoubtedly very dangerous. What's more, even if they play two first rounds, I am afraid that no team is willing to take over Wei Shao. And the deal back, it's also likely to be a few smaller junk contracts.
At present, there are two teams on the market with the ability to take over Westbrook - the Rockets and the Thunder. Before the February trade deadline, the Rockets were completely open to trading Wall for Westbrook, asking the Lakers to make up a 27 first round, but was rejected. Then the Rockets will ask to lower the requirements to the first round of swaps, and the Lakers are still reluctant to do so. From the Lakers' point of view, getting a Wall who has not played in a year and whose status is unknown is not much better at all, how much stronger can he be than Wei Shao? The Thunder have huge salary space, but they are bound to extort a sum of money from the Lakers in the first round of signing.
Interestingly, the Hornets became a potentially interested team in Westbrook. Wei Shao is the signed spokesperson for Air Jordan, the owner of the Hornets, not to mention, jordan also likes Wei Shao. The Purpose of the Hornets is to clear up Hayward and Rozier's long-term contracts and create salary space for the renewal of Bridge and three goals. Hayward has 2 years left in more than 60 million contracts, Rozier has 4 years left nearly 100 million contracts, sending away Westbrook's expired contracts in exchange for two long-term premiums or even garbage contracts, will the Lakers be willing?
2. Buyout
If the deal doesn't work out, then the Lakers will have to sit down with Wei Shao to talk about buying out. As we all know, old superstars, generally in order to seek decency, usually after being traded to a weak team, take the initiative to negotiate a buyout with the new team, give up a part of the salary to obtain free body, join the playoff team to find the possibility of winning the championship.
If Wei Shao is willing, considering what he and his family have encountered in the past season, and voluntarily give up some salaries, then the Lakers can completely talk to Wei Shao about buyout. The specific amount is not clear, after all, it is millions of real money and silver.
After buying out Wei Shao, the Lakers can get more than 10 million full middle class this summer, and the reinforcement will be much smoother.
3. Postpone the layoffs
If the deal and buyout are not negotiated, for the Lakers, only the extension is left. But this is nothing more than a one-time payment of 47.1 million to Westbrook, divided into the next three seasons, 15.7 million "dead money" per year. This is just a matter of long pain and short pain, because it is definitely a headache to occupy such a high salary space every year, and it will also have a great obstacle to the lakers' future reinforcement. Think about the feeling of the Lakers having to pay Ruhr Deng a $5 million contract this season...
And this choice is the best for Wei Shao, because he can not only receive the full salary, but also freely choose to go home. He can only passively accept the transaction (he can also talk to the new family about buyout), talk about buying out, he has to sacrifice his salary, and only this is the least loss.