When the New York Knicks and Utah Jazz held discussions on potential Donovan Mitchell trades, some of the proposals included three-team scenarios, but none of them included the Los Angeles Lakers. The Knicks would have likely had to send out Evan Fournier to a third team to make the math work in a RJ Barrett version of the trade.

The absence of the Lakers from those talks is perhaps a further indication that they are sincere in their reticence to attach future picks to the contract of Russell Westbrook. The only trade scenario that the Lakers appear to have seriously entertained involving Westbrook and those picks was for Kyrie Irving when he was potentially available from the Brooklyn Nets.