Lakers owner Jeanie Buss has to walk back absurd Russell Westbrook compliment

The Los Angeles Lakers’ offseason has been dominated by discussions related to Russell Westbrook and his role with the team going forward. Nearly everyone with an IQ somewhere above 12 can agree that Westbrook underperformed and contributed to a poor season from LA.

Westbrook’s famously poor jump shooting managed to weigh on the offense like a ton of bricks, and his defense did little to impress. Even though LeBron James and Anthony Davis were doing all they could to make sure that LA won as many games as possible, Jeanie Buss wasn’t as critical of Westbrook.

Buss was quoted in The Athletic as saying that Westbrook was the team’s best player last season. Considering how every metric that is worth anything showed that he took an egregious step back from his prior season with the Wizards, this quote was so jarring that it prompted a quick retraction.

Buss was apparently not too thrilled with Westbrook’s performance, as she walked back the comment and said that he was the most “consistent” player on the team. While he did play in 78 games last season, playing every day does not necessarily mean that he was effective.

Lakers: Jeanie Buss edited her Russell Westbrook praise.

Westbrook’s box score numbers don’t look awful in a vacuum. Still, even the most basic analysis of Lakers basketball shows that he was a major anchor that was weighing heavily on LA’s infrastructure. A ball-dominant player who was often tasked with playing off-ball, the fit is simply incongruous.

Buss and the Lakers have been trying to relieve themselves of Westbrook and his enormous contract for the last few months, as they appear to have realized that he does not fit the timeline or scheme Darvin Ham is working with. A trade partner has been increasingly hard to find.

The Lakers have been trying to get Westbrook’s confidence back up now that it appears he will return to the fold. That’s one thing, but implying that Westbrook was more integral to the Lakers’ few handfuls of success last season than the mighty James and Davis were is just silly.

The Lakers could contend for a title if they figure out a way to make Westbrook as effective as he was in prior stops without taking the ball out of James’ hands too often. Restoring his confidence might help, but it also leads to Buss sticking her foot in her mouth with comments like this.

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