Sure... this situation is like every other situation and has no unique elements.... I'm a clueless simp.
ORRRRRRRRR - here are the unique elements
1- We are in the middle of a major rebuild and are very likely to make at least two more trades or one mega trade prior to the season starting. By all accounts this is not the roster we carry into camp per every Jazz media person.
2- The Lakers are surely trading Westbrook. The second biggest contract in the league iirc. Its been rumored all offseason and they just traded for his biggest NBA enemy. I'm sure the plan is to carry two combustible players into that locker room that truly hate each other.
3- Because of the sheer size of the Westbrook deal they have limited trade partners... essentially Indiana and Utah are the rumored teams that come up in multiple national circles as well as circles in LA and Utah.
4- They could have done the Indiana deal at any time. Indiana wanted two picks... LA said nah.
5- Lakers really want to have cap space and in fact now have close to max space for one Kyrie Irving. Who all of a sudden started playing nice with Brooklyn. Almost like he knows that **** is temporary and he has a future destination he likes.
6- One of the rumored teams has a bunch of players that fit important roles that also happen to have expiring contracts. They also aren't trying to be competitive and have no issue just waiving Westbrook. The other rumored team in the deal already has had reservations about paying a guy $40M to not play basketball... and has the most old fashioned owner in the league.
7- Lebron extends giving up his leverage in hopes the team sells off future stuff to make the current team better.
8- A bigger deal can't get done between Utah and LA yet because some of the players can't be aggregated in a trade.
9- Utah is also working on a bigger deal for their superstar and some of those aspects have to play out.
10- LA has registered interest in Bojan, Bev, Beasley as well as Cam Reddish (a guy they can't really match salary on unless there is a third team that can facilitate... wonder if there is a third team that has been rumored to be doing a trade with the Knicks?)
TLDR - Westbrook is getting traded. There is like a 80% chance he is going to Indiana or Utah. LA and Utah just agreed to a separate deal.. you can go ahead an assume they talked about a bigger deal as well.