According to the always well-informed Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Russell Westbrook will activate his “player option” at $47.1 million and will therefore stay one more year with the Los Angeles Lakers.
He changed franchise in the summer of 2019, in December 2020 and then in June 2021. This time, there was no question of looking elsewhere for Russell Westbrook. The 33-year-old point guard will activate his “player option” to stay one more year with the Los Angeles Lakers, the always well-informed Adrian Wojnarowski reveals on Tuesday.ESPN. In September 2017, Westbrook, then in Oklahoma City, signed a five-year contract extension, until 2023, with a “player option” for the 2022-23 season.
He has since been sent to Houston against Chris Paul, Washington against John Wall and the Lakers against Montrezl Harrell, Kyle Kuzma and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. but despite a very disappointing season with the California franchise, he decided to play one more season with the Violet and Gold, for 47.1 million dollars. He would probably not have found a team that could offer him such a salary by becoming a free agent.
Over 18 points average for Westbrook
In 2021-22, in a franchise that failed to qualify for the playoffs, the Californian shot 18.5 points, 7.4 rebounds and 7.1 assists in 78 games, although far from his average triple-double seasons, but the mayonnaise never really took hold with coach Frank Vogel, replaced this summer by Darvin Ham, and the number zero was taken aback by some of the Lakers fans in end of season.
Due to each other’s injuries, the Russell Westbrook – LeBron James – Anthony Davis trio has almost never been fielded together (21 games out of 82), although Westbrook was the least injured of the three, which contributed to this disappointing season, which ended 11th in the Western Conference (33 wins – 49 losses). Barring an improbable exchange, this same trio will try to send the Lakers to the play-offs next season. It will take at least that to see Russell Westbrook continue the adventure in California and extend his contract.
