The trade deadline has to be considered a massive success for the Los Angeles Lakers, who turned their glut of guards into several role players that better fit the roster.
The big move came when the Lakers finally pulled the plug on the Russell Westbrook experiment and traded him away to the Utah Jazz in exchange for D’Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt. However, Los Angeles didn’t stop there as they also dealt away Patrick Beverley to the Orlando Magic in exchange for Mo Bamba.
Beverley had his ups and downs with the Lakers, so that combined with the fact that he was an expiring contract made it an easy decision to trade him for frontcourt depth in Bamba. Things worked out for the grizzly veteran as he was eventually bought out by the Magic which cleared the way for him to sign with his hometown team the Chicago Bulls.
It was a solid move for Los Angeles, but in an appearance on his podcast the Pat Bev Pod with Rone, Beverley clarified that he pushed for the trade at the deadline himself:
Everything isn’t always what it seems… SUBSCRIBE TO THE POD pic.twitter.com/stcCk4TSFJ
— Pat Bev Pod (@PatBevPod) February 28, 2023
Beverley seems to allude to some drama within the organization when he says that he didn’t like what was going on with the Lakers, but didn’t provide many more details than that. Perhaps the situation became too toxic from him considering how much talk there was of overhauling the roster before the trade deadline, but that is purely speculation.
It’s still interesting nonetheless to hear Beverley try to set the record straight as there was a lot of discussion among the fanbase about wanting him gone due to the roster imbalance. The Lakers were too small and lacked shooting on the perimeter, so getting a stretch big in Bamba enabled them to address both areas of concern.
So far, things have been looking up for Los Angeles as they’ve strung together several quality wins and look like more of a threat to make the playoffs. Hopefully things continue to trend that way in the coming weeks.
Patrick Beverley sets goal of knocking Lakers out of playoff contention
Although Beverley was gracious enough to thank the Lakers organization for his brief stay there, he’s gone back to being a heel of sorts. Chicago plays Los Angeles twice at the end of March and Beverley is going to be amped up as he’s set a goal of trying to known his former team out of playoff contention.
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