With the entire fan base of the Los Angeles Lakers seemingly waiting for the team to trade Russell Westbrook for Kyrie Irving, new head coach Darvin Ham has praised the former.
Some may feel it is nothing more than a ploy to make it seem as if the Lakers have some sort of posture when it comes to negotiating a trade with the Brooklyn Nets.
However, in all likelihood, Ham is simply preparing to coach everyone who is on the roster and attempting to manifest the best-case scenario with such players.
On Friday, during a summer league game, the coach added some more comments.
Via Lakers Daily:
“Ham spoke about the Lakers’ current makeup and added that trade talk is a regular occurrence in the NBA.
“‘We love everyone on our roster,’ Ham said. ‘And until you’re not on our roster, you’re ours and we’re going to try to get better with the group that we have. That’s just the bottom line of it.
“‘I don’t know a player that’s come through this league in my 26 years that hasn’t had their name part of a trade rumor a time or two. But, it is what it is. It’s the nature of the beast of our business. And so, again, the guys we have on our roster I’m very thankful for, I’m proud of and we want to maximize everything they can do to help us get to that ultimate goal.'”
If Ham really didn’t think highly of Westbrook, he wouldn’t have gone to the lengths he has to compliment him and his mentality.
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