What is a realistic return on Russell Westbrook in a trade?

As the Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics continue to scrap in the NBA Finals, everyone else around the league is waiting in a holding pattern. While the sport’s offseason has proven to provide little to no downtime when it comes to transactions and rumors, the early portion of the summer right before the draft is one of the few chunks of calm for fans.

For the Lakers, a team who is expected to be amongst the most active in attempting to improve their roster, they too have to navigate this moment of quiet and prepare for the frenzy that awaits them.

Perhaps their biggest offseason priority continues to be determining where Russell Westbrook fits into their immediate future. While the team would likely prefer to move the polarizing point guard elsewhere, more reports have continued to sprout up suggesting the team has at least internally is open to a reunion.

Even if the team is simply posturing, it is worth noticing how other teams around the league have begun to set themselves up ahead of the offseason. Namely, the Oklahoma City Thunder. A team whose residence recently handed Westbrook a key to their city, and also used a lump of cap space in a recent of trade with the Denver Nuggets.

Although the Thunder can in theory still be a potential landing spot for Westbrook, if they and more teams begin to position their space and eyes elsewhere, the Lakers may have no other choice but to bring Westbrook back in the fold. This brings us to today’s episode.

On this week’s edition of Talk-O-Tuesday, our hosts Alex Padilla and Alex Regla discussed the latest Westbrook rumblings, the Lakers’ reported interest in acquiring a pick in this year’s draft and what the Finals have revealed about roster construction.

You can listen to the full episode below, and to make sure you never miss a show, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts.

And for a short-form recap pod, check out Lakers Lowdown, in which Anthony Irwin recaps the previous day’s news and gets you ready for the day ahead in LakerLand, every weekday morning on the Silver Screen & Roll Podcast feed.