The Los Angeles Lakers have put forth quite the in-season turnaround. The team started 2-10 this year, rallied during the regular season, made some trades, got into the Play-In Tournament, and after taking down the 2-seed Memphis Grizzlies in the first round of the postseason, are currently in the driver’s seat in their Western Conference Semifinal series against the Golden State Warriors, where they hold a 1-0 lead after winning in San Francisco earlier this week.
A major reason why all of this happened was those midseason trades where they were able to pivot and double down on a defense-first identity. And two of the players who were moved at that time, Patrick Beverley and Russell Westbrook, apparently really want to get rings in the event the team goes on to lift the Larry O’Brien trophy this season.
PAT BEV JUST CONFIRMED HIM AND RUSSELL WESTBROOK ARE GETTING THEIR RINGS IF THE LAKERS WINS THE CHAMPIONSHIP THIS YEAR 😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/hl3quXPdvi
— chokzy (@chokzy2k) May 4, 2023
Beverley was part of a four-team trade that saw the Lakers also move Thomas Bryant in exchange for Mo Bamba, Davon Reed, and a bunch of second-round draft picks. He was sent to the Orlando Magic, who bought out his deal and freed him up to sign with his hometown team, the Chicago Bulls. Westbrook, meanwhile, was sent to the Utah Jazz along with a first-round pick as part of a three-team deal that got D’Angelo Russell, Jarred Vanderbilt, and Malik Beasley on Los Angeles’ roster. He was likewise bought out, which let him return to L.A. as a member of the Clippers.
As Harrison Faigen of Silver Screen and Roll noted, there is a little bit of precedent here for the Lakers.
