Report: “Decent chance” Lakers send out Westbrook as third team in Mitchell trade

The Lakers’ situation is pretty clear: They would like to trade Russell Westbrook before the season starts (ideally before training camp). However, other teams want sweeteners to take him (and his $47 million contract), and because of their very limited trade assets, the Lakers don’t want to put all their eggs in a basket that doesn’t make them title contenders. Put simply, the Lakers don’t want to trade the last two first-round picks under their control this decade (2027 and 2029) just to be a good playoff team — they will do it for a shot at a ring.

This brings us to this report from Marc Stein in his Sunday newsletter, saying the Lakers could well be the third team in a Donovan Mitchell trade with the Knicks, sending out a pick or picks to unload Westbrook and get back quality role players.

If the Knicks manage to win the trade race for Utah’s Donovan Mitchell, or even if another team unexpectedly beats them to Mitchell, league sources say there’s a decent chance that the Lakers will be involved in the deal. The two future first-round picks that the Lakers possess in 2027 and 2029 are the kind of top-shelf draft picks that Jazz CEO Danny Ainge is believed to covet. Russell Westbrook’s $47 million expiring contract and those picks could be the Lakers’ entree to a potential three-team swap … depending on the players that would land in Los Angeles.

The Lakers, I’m told, continue to hold firm on their position that they will agree to surrender both of their future firsts in the same deal only if the trade makes them a certified contender. Does a three-teamer that routes, say, Utah’s Bojan Bogdanović and New York’s Evan Fournier to the Lakers rise to that level?

The Lakers would almost unquestionably put one of their