Lakers’ Russell Westbrook’s fall in point guard rankings is just sad
By Jason Reed
The Los Angeles Lakers had the most disappointing season in franchise history last year in large part due to Russell Westbrook. Los Angeles made the ill-advised trade of sending actual assets to the Washington Wizards for Westbrook and it never quite worked out for LA.
Now the Lakers are desperately trying to trade Westbrook and get him off of the roster for next season. Regardless of whatever else happens, this team is not sniffing the NBA Finals is Westbrook is still on the roster.
This is such a fall from grace for Westbrook, who was once one of the most beloved players in the NBA and is a former MVP. This is not just a Lakers problem, either, as Westbrook’s place on the NBA totem poll has absolutely plummeted in the last half-decade.
That couldn’t be more evident than in Hoops Hype’s latest point guard rankings ahead of the 2022-23 season. Frank Urbina ranked the top 25 points guards in the NBA and Westbrook did at least make the list, albeit in a very low spot. Westbrook checked in at no. 22, only ahead of Kyle Lowry, Josh Giddey and D’Angelo Russell.
As sad as it is, that is exactly where Russell Westbrook should rank after his season with the Lakers.
It is nearly impossible to see how Russell Westbrook played last season and rank him any higher than that. Quite frankly, you could even make the case that he should not be on the top-25 list but his pedigree keeps him there.
This is going to be contentious, but Westbrook has always been overrated as a player. That is not to say that he wasn’t once better than he is now, but casual NBA fans just looked at the box score and the triple-doubles and overvalued Westbrook as a player.
Westbrook is the classic box-sheet stuffer when in reality, he does not play a winning brand of basketball. Russ is really good at elevating the ceiling of a bad basketball team. He can take a 10th seed into the playoffs almost single-handily because of his high usage rate and what he can impact in that regard.
However, those playoff teams rarely made it anywhere. Since Kevin Durant left the OKC Thunder, Westbrook has made it past the first round of the playoffs just once: in the 2020 bubble with the Houston Rockets.
That Rockets team scrapped past a Thunder team in seven games that was not even supposed to make the playoffs that year. Houston was then beat comfortably in five games by the Los Angeles Lakers.
Westbrook aging and declining on these rankings is just proof in the pudding that he was probably always overrated to begin with. True greats like Chris Paul and Steph Curry have aged gracefully, whereas it has been a disaster for Russell Westbrook.