With Russell Westbrook trade, Lakers went Hollywood while Wizards liberated their future: Hollinger - The Athletic

You did it, Washington.

Somehow, some way, you got off John Wall’s contract, and along the way, some stuff happened that actually helped your team.

Thursday’s trade agreement to send Russell Westbrook to the Lakers finished the job started a year ago with the Wall trade to Houston and sets up the Wizards to have the flexibility to put a real team around Bradley Beal.

Amazingly, the final cost of getting off one of the worst contract extensions in league annals was a trade of Washington’s 2023 or 2024 first-rounder, most likely, for the Lakers’ first in 2022, a year of Westbrook and three middling players on halfway decent contracts who won’t negatively impact the Wizards’ short-term or long-term picture.

This is a minor miracle, to put it lightly, a liberation day for the Washington franchise. Is it possible Washington’s motto for the last 20 years — life, liberty and the pursuit of the eighth seed — can now pivot to loftier goals? Are the Wizards set up to actually become (gasp) good in two or three years?

It sure seems like that may be possible now. Washington turned Westbrook’s contract — one that pays him $44 million next year and $47 million the year after — into the expiring deal of center

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With Russell Westbrook trade, Lakers went Hollywood while Wizards liberated their future: Hollinger - The Athletic
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