Should the Lakers pursue Kyrie Irving or bring in multiple solid role players?

While the league has been effectively put on hold until the fates of Kevin Durant, Donovan Mitchell and Kyrie Irving are decided, the Lakers find themselves waiting around like everyone else.

Although the team has engaged with the Pacers on a potential Russell Westbrook trade in the past few weeks, it seems that further conversations — and the inclusion of the second first round pick in this or any deal — will be put on ice until the bigger dominos fall first.

If talks with Indiana are to be believed to be dead, and the two teams do not circle back to one and other down the line, the Lakers fortunately do seem to have other options on the table when it comes to plopping Westbrook elsewhere.

According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, New York and Utah have also had discussions with the Lakers regarding Westbrook. With the inclusion of Brooklyn and Indiana, the tally of teams the Lakers have been in negotiations with for their point guard is now up to five.

The team may ultimately not come to an agreement with any of these teams once the dust is settled, but for the time being, it does feel like they at least have different routes in eventually severing ties with Westbrook one way or the other. This brings us to today’s episode.

On this edition of Talk-O-Tuesday, hosts Alex Padilla and Alex Regla discussed the multiple trade partners the Lakers currently have, and then shared which potential Westbrook package they think is the strongest.

The duo also went over the reported contract extension for Phil Handy, as well as the news that Rasheed Wallace will no longer be in contention for a spot on Darvin Ham’s bench this coming season.

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.