Lakers Face Crucial Decisions Heading Into Training Camp

Russell Westbrook's status clearly tops the list

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This may shock you, but NBA training camp opens at the end of this month.

With so many questions heading into the 2022-23 NBA season, it's a welcomed sight given that we can finally have more than just Twitter beefs and offseason workout videos to fill the conversation.

The Los Angeles Lakers, just like the Brooklyn Nets, are a team that's been in the center all types of these offseason conversations, and very few have been positive.

So what can we reasonably expect from this team?

The Lakers come in with +1800 odds to win the NBA title at BetMGM, and +550 to win the West. Spoiler alert: neither is worth your money, so don't bother.

The Lakers really are in a wait-and-see situation right now.

The Lakers traded for Patrick Beverley on July 6 to share time with Russell Westbrook at point guard, which is a problem given their history on the court. Sure, they've tried to play nice in front of the cameras, but as NBA Twitter will always let you know, those issues run deep. There's also the fact that Westbrook apparently put his L.A. home on the market, which is never a good sign.

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Westbrook's name has been in all kinds of trade rumors, and it was reported recently by ESPN that he'd be open to a trade, but hasn't requested one.

Sure, this is fine, nothing to see here.

You can expect an incredibly awkward training camp for this team if he's still there, with everyone from head coach Darvin Ham, to LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and even Pat Bev standing up for Westbrook publicly.

This organization knows the chemistry was already a disaster last season, and nothing they've done this summer has made it any better. For the Lakers to even go over their win total this season (45.5), there may need to be some tough decisions made, and those choices start with Westbrook.