The Los Angeles Lakers are in a bad spot as things currently stand. As the team waits for a potential Kyrie Irving deal to happen, they sit with a roster that is not good enough to contend for a title and will have all of the same problems as last season.
In fact, you could make the case that this current roster is even worse than last year’s roster as it does not have Malik Monk. Monk was the lone standout from last year’s team and he turned his promising season into a bigger payday with the Sacramento Kings.
Monk was a fan favorite in Los Angeles and has been on the record of being very appreciative of what the Lakers and LeBron James did for his career. That gratitude is still there, as despite now being a Western Conference Rival, Monk still believes in the Lakers’ big three.
Monk was approached by TMZ Sports at LAX and among the various questions he was asked was a question about the Lakers’ big three potentially working it out after huddling together on a phone call this summer. Monk’s answer was simple: of course, they are grown men.
Monk even admits that the Los Angeles Lakers could potentially be a sleeping giant in the Western Conference, although he quickly follows that by saying that the Kings are going to be the sleeping giant.
Malik Monk is just being polite, this Lakers big 3 is not going to work.
There really is not much else Monk could have said here as he would have caused a storm either way. He was not going to simply bash Russell Westbrook when Monk has absolutely zero reason to do so. This was just him being polite to his former teammates.
The reality of the situation is that this team will not work as currently constructed. We all saw what happens with Westbrook, Davis and LeBron last season and there is absolutely zero reason to expect it to be different this season.
Westbrook has never been a player that changes his game for the better good. He has a massive basketball ego and simply is not a winning player. If he didn’t change his game last year when the team was struggling what makes anyone think it will improve this year?
Making matters worse, Westbrook decided to throw everyone else under the bus (most notably Frank Vogel) during his exit interview at the end of the year. No responsibility was taken by Westbrook, which will carry over into the 2022-23 season.
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There are a lot of variables around the Los Angeles Lakers and there is only one thing that is an absolute certainty: the Lakers are better off if Russell Westbrook doesn’t play.