Report: Westbrook likelier to be off Lakers' roster after Beverley addition

Russell Westbrook and Patrick Beverley may not be teammates for long.

Following the Los Angeles Lakers' trade for Beverley on Thursday, it's likelier that Westbrook won't be part of the active roster when the club opens camp, a source told The Athletic's Jovan Buha.

Instead, the Lakers will seek to deal Westbrook elsewhere or shut him down while keeping him away from the team, much like the Houston Rockets did with John Wall last season, Buha reports.

Preseason training camps usually take place from late September to early October.

Finding a trade for Westbrook, while seemingly difficult, would be easier to stomach for the Lakers than simply exiling the nine-time All-Star. After exercising his player option this summer, the 33-year-old is due $47 million in 2022-23, the second-highest base salary in the NBA, according to Spotrac.

Beverley and Westbrook have publicly clashed for much of their careers. The latter first took exception with Beverley in the 2013 postseason when the then-Houston Rockets guard unexpectedly dove for a ball by Westbrook's legs and inadvertently caused him to tear his meniscus while with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

In 2019, their feud went viral when Westbrook criticized Beverley's defense, saying, "It's just running around, doing nothing." Beverley said in a podcast appearance in March that those remarks damaged his reputation.