It’s been nearly three months since point guard Russell Westbrook was traded from the Washington Wizards to the Los Angeles Lakers. Finally, he’ll make his official regular season debut in purple and gold on Tuesday against the Golden State Warriors. Westbrook is the triple-double king that has clawed his way to the top.
Bleacher Report released its top 50 NBA players for the 2021-22 season and Russell fell in at No. 33. Westbrook proved that he still has a lot left in his story after joining LeBron James and company, but there’s still a lot of unknown surrounding his fit in the Lakers lineup. There’s a reasonable argument behind why Russell ranks in at that number, but not when you look at the players who are ahead of him.
Russell Westbrook drops to No. 33 in NBA rankings ahead of his first season with the Los Angeles Lakers
It’s hard to be 100 percent all-in with the new-look Lakers, but obviously Los Angeles should be. The organization orchestrated a trade for Russell Westbrook, signed Carmelo Anthony and even brought back Dwight Howard. Those are just some of the main takeaways from the offseason.
It seems as if the Lakers are going to be the leader of the Western Conference, but that’s not definitive. The regular season starts on Oct. 19 with the potential Game 7 of the NBA Finals taking place on June 19. For those counting at home, that’s eight months. That makes for a lot of time to build chemistry, although hopefully it doesn’t take quite that long.
Westbrook was drafted by the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2008 and remained there through the 2018 season before spending a year with the Houston Rockets and then the Wizards. If he can successfully lead an offense that will bring the title back to Los Angeles, I’m not sure how his abilities will still be questioned. What I’m trying to get at here is that it’s a bit disrespectful to the former MVP that he fell to No. 33 in Bleacher Report’s power rankings.
It should be noted that the highest that Russell has previously ranked is No. 21. I’m not necessarily saying that he shouldn’t be No. 33, but what I am saying that is that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander shouldn’t be three spots ahead of Westbrook at No. 30. The same with Ben Simmons at No. 28 and Bradley Beal at No. 17.
Specifically, those three names taking precedence over Russell’s is difficult to grasp. I’ll admit that saying that Beal doesn’t deserve to be ahead of him is pushing it, but I don’t quite see that either.
I was looking at players that primarily play in the guard position and I know that Gilgeous-Alexander, Simmons and Beal don’t play on teams that tout two players in the top-10 (Anthony Davis at No. 10 and LeBron James at No. 3). However, I believe that Westbrook is going to throw the rest of the league a curve ball with how he plays this year.
Last season, Russell played in 65 games and averaged 22.2 points, 11.5 rebounds and 11.7 assists. Shai averaged 23.7 points, 4.7 rebounds and 5.9 assists; Ben averaged 14.3 points, 7.2 rebounds and 6.9 assists; Bradley averaged 31.3 points, 4.7 rebounds and 4.4 assists.
Yes, Westbrook was playing for Washington and he’s on a different team with new teammates, but I think that at the end of the 2021-22 season he won’t have played as if he were the 33rd-best.
Russell is going to have to dial back his role with the Lakers, as in he won’t have to worry about being the superhero for every game. He’s shared a court with Kevin Durant and James Harden, but he’s now been presented with a bigger challenge. Westbrook is playing for a successful organization and is surrounded by some of the top talent in the league, so his game has the opportunity to take an exciting turn.