Examining the Lakers-Wolves-Jazz trade from every angle

Before it was completely overshadowed by the Kevin Durant megablockbuster, the Los Angeles Lakers, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Utah Jazz hammered out a fascinating three-teamer that could work out nicely for everyone involved.

Let's break it down, team by team.

Lakers

Acquired: D'Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley, Jarred Vanderbilt
Traded: Russell Westbrook, Juan Toscano-Anderson, Damian Jones, 2027 1st-round pick (top-four protected)

This may not be the kind of home run swing some were hoping to see L.A. make with its remaining tradable draft capital, but it's a pretty solid hedge. The Lakers managed to finally wash their hands of the misbegotten Westbrook experiment and significantly bolster their depth without completely handcuffing themselves long term. They hung on to their 2029 first-rounder and got at least some protection on their outgoing 2027 pick, and because that protected pick reportedly converts immediately into a second-rounder in the same draft if it lands in the top four, they can still move their '29 first (or their 2030 first once this season is over) in a future deal.

With Russell on an expiring deal, Beasley carrying a full non-guarantee for next season, and Vanderbilt on the books for just $4.7 million, L.A. also preserved its avenue to max cap space this summer if the front office opts to go that route. If not, the Lakers can just keep all three 26-and-under contributors, with Bird rights to re-sign Russell for the remainder of his prime. That's a tidy piece of business when it means meaningfully upgrading the point guard spot and adding two additional quality rotation players to a team in dire need of quality rotation players.

Sure, Westbrook contributed to the Lakers' league-leading at-rim attempt rate and sixth-ranked transition frequency. And yes, he helped set the table as a pick-and-roll ball-handler, especially for Anthony Davis. He was also a space-clogger and a woefully inefficient scorer (49.6% true shooting) who compounded that inefficiency with exorbitant volume (28.8% usage) and a sky-high turnover rate (18.1% of his used possessions). D'Angelo Russell has his share of warts and has had an up-and-down season, but he should be a much cleaner fit.

Russell offers an enormous shooting upgrade (he's hit 51% of his long mid-rangers and 40% of his above-the-break threes this season) without much of a downgrade in the playmaking department. Even if you rate him lower as a pure passer (I don't), his ability to hit pull-up jumpers can pull defenses out of drop coverage, which will open things up that much more for Davis and LeBron James on the roll.

He isn't a rim presence, but as the Westbrook experiment demonstrated, that's a less important consideration for a tertiary option on this team than the ability to play off-ball and space the floor for LeBron and AD. The defense should basically be a wash (Russell's a worse on-ball defender, but a better team defender). Dennis Schroder can slide back down to his more logical sixth-man role while Russell slots in with the starters.

The Lakers, who currently rank 26th in both 3-point attempt rate and 3-point percentage, badly needed an injection of shooting. On top of exchanging Westbrook for Russell, they get that here by adding the trigger-happy Beasley. While he's shot only league average from deep this season (35.9%), he's done so on outrageous volume (8.6 attempts per game, a league-leading 15.4 per 100 possessions), and he's a genuine threat to shoot off of movement, which can't be said for anyone who's donned a Lakers uniform this season. His off-ball gravity will keep weak-side defenders occupied, and he should be a dynamite inverted pick-and-roll partner for LeBron in the same way Malik Monk was last year.

At the same time, Beasley is a disastrous defender on and off the ball. Conceding blow-bys, ball-watching, botching help rotations ... you name it, Beasley does it. So the Lakers, who rank 20th at that end of the floor, might not get the full benefit of his offensive abilities because they'll have to be selective with his playing time and the types of lineups they plug him into. He should probably be paired up with Davis as often as possible, but it's going to be tough to play him beside Russell or even Lonnie Walker in the backcourt for big minutes.

They'll basically have the inverse quandary with Vanderbilt, an excellent defender with clear limitations at the other end, though he at least has redeeming offensive qualities like second-chance creation and elbow playmaking. He probably immediately becomes the team's best wing stopper, and he offers a dose of secondary rim protection. That means playing him in bench groups alongside Thomas Bryant (an offensively gifted center who struggles as a back-line anchor) could make a lot of sense.

The option to play Vanderbilt as a backup small-ball five also has some appeal, especially looking ahead to the spring when Bryant's defense might become untenable. The full extent of his role, though, will depend on his ability to fit next to LeBron and Davis on offense. Because Vanderbilt is a non-shooter with minimal ball skills and a shaky touch, opponents tend to guard him with their center. If that were to happen, it would negate the offensive advantages of playing AD at the five.

In short, while this is a nice haul for the Lakers, they're effectively getting three one-way players, and figuring out how to mix and match all those guys to find the right lineup combinations could be a challenge for Darvin Ham and Co. Still, actually having options to mix and match is a luxury this team didn't have before Wednesday.

Even with LeBron having celebrated his 38th birthday a couple months ago, and even with Durant joining Devin Booker in Phoenix, L.A.'s top two can go toe to toe with anyone else's. That duo is now flanked by a capable supporting cast - including this incoming trio, Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura, Schroder, Walker, Bryant, and Patrick Beverley. At 25-30 and with three teams to leapfrog just to get into the play-in, the Lakers obviously have a lot of ground to make up. They're now pretty well-equipped to do so.

Timberwolves

Acquired: Mike Conley, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, 2024 Grizzlies/Wizards 2nd-round pick (lower of the two), 2025 and 2026 Jazz 2nd-round picks
Traded: D'Angelo Russell

Minnesota could've simply let L.A. and Utah hash this deal out between themselves. In that scenario, perhaps Conley is a Laker right now. But the Timberwolves decided to wedge themselves into the negotiations in order to make a starting point guard swap of their own.

It's easy to understand why they would value Conley over Russell in the present. The former is more of a pure-point distributor - an offensive organizer who plays selfless, blemish-free basketball - which will make him a nice addition to an offense that often lacks structure. Conley's style would seem to jive better than Russell's more commandeering approach with a team that seems increasingly ready to hand the reins over to Anthony Edwards. Perhaps most importantly, Conley has experience working a highly successful pick-and-roll game with Rudy Gobert - and actually using Gobert as a roll man - which is something no T-Wolves ball-handler outside of Kyle Anderson can say.

Minnesota is clearly banking on the superior fit making up for a downgrade in pure scoring punch since Russell scores quite a bit more frequently and more efficiently than Conley. They're not wrong to feel that way. The Jazz posted a 120.5 offensive rating with Conley on the floor this season, a 95th-percentile mark. The T-Wolves with Russell on the court? 112.8, 39th percentile. The more pertinent question, though, is whether the present-day upgrade and stylistic shift are enough to justify a middle-of-the-road team trading a 26-year-old for a 35-year-old who's clearly on the downswing.

In a vacuum, the answer is no, but the T-Wolves clearly felt they had no better option because Russell was headed for free agency and they didn't want any part of his next contract. In that sense, they get a bit more security with Conley, who's on the books for another year at $24.4 million (with only $14.3 million guaranteed). Unless he completely falls off a cliff - which isn't out of the question - this allows them to kick the can down the road another year as they try to figure out their long-term solution at the one-spot.

In the meantime, they can feel good about having likely made themselves a slightly better team while starting the process of restocking their draft-pick cupboard (though they obviously didn't manage to recoup any of the first-rounders they shelled out for Gobert). They also get to take a flier on Alexander-Walker, who's played some of the best basketball of his career in a scaled-down role for Utah this season.

Jazz

Acquired: Russell Westbrook, Juan Toscano-Anderson, Damian Jones, Lakers 2027 1st-round pick (top-four protected)
Traded: Mike Conley, Malik Beasley, Jarred Vanderbilt, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, 2024 2nd-round pick (via Grizzlies or Wizards), 2025 and 2026 2nd-round picks

This is all much more straightforward from the Jazz's side. As would-be tankers, they were always positioned to sell, both for the sake of accumulating more long-term assets and improving their lottery odds in the coming draft.

They currently sit a game-and-a-half up on the Lakers for the West's final play-in spot, but those teams clearly have vastly different priorities. Utah is building a bridge to the future with Lauri Markkanen, Walker Kessler, Collin Sexton, and now 15 first-round picks in the next seven drafts. Westbrook's massive expiring deal (which will surely be bought out) also helps them clear a ton of cap space, which they can use to throw a big offer sheet at a young RFA like P.J. Washington or Grant Williams, or (more realistically) serve as a dumping ground for more bad contracts as a way to pull in yet more draft capital.

So, it's not surprising that the Jazz moved out multiple rotation players. It is a little surprising that they moved four of them in the same deal along with multiple second-round picks and only managed to bring back one first-rounder. To be clear, that first-rounder could turn out to be extremely valuable - betting against the Lakers' distant future seems like a great idea right now - but the top-four protection on the pick and the potential for it to immediately convert to a second-rounder presents the possibility of massive opportunity cost. If the Lakers don't project to be good in 2026-27 or stumble out of the gate, they'll have every incentive to be as terrible as possible.

There's just a huge range of outcomes for that pick, to the point that we really won't be able to judge this deal from the Jazz's perspective until the 2027 lottery. Unless, of course, they wind up flipping it once their rebuild has borne more fruit and they're ready to hit the accelerator.