After the most disappointing season in franchise history, the Los Angeles Lakers parted ways with the head coach that helped guide them to a championship less than two calendar years earlier. Frank Vogel was shown the door and replacing him was Darvin Ham.
Ham is well respected in the league and it is about time he gets a head coaching gig but there are no guarantees that he is successful. After all, most of the Lakers’ issues last season were not caused by Vogel and Ham has to deal with the same issues in his first year as a head coach.
That being said, Ham is already making decisions that Lakers fans have been yearning for dating back to Vogel’s tenure as the head coach. Most notably, Ham is making a big decision in the team’s final preseason game against the Sacramento Kings with a pretty significant change to Russell Westbrook’s role.
ESPN reporting with @Mcten: The Lakers are planning to bring Russell Westbrook off the bench in the final preseason game vs. Kings tonight (ESPN, 10 ET). Darvin Ham and Westbrook have been exploring possibility of Westbrook quarterbacking second unit and they'll try it tonight.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) October 14, 2022
Westbrook started all 78 games that he played for Los Angeles last season and has not come off the bench in a game since his rookie season. Vogel toyed with keeping Russ out of the crunch-time lineups last season and that caused a stir, so it will be interesting to see how Westbrook responds to this potential role change.
This is how the Los Angeles Lakers can maximize Russell Westbrook.
As sad as it sounds, the Lakers are better the less Russell Westbrook plays. Westbrook’s play style, his high usage rate and the mistakes he makes on the defensive end are all hard to overcome. Westbrook and the team can pitch that he will change this season all he wants but he has been the same guy for his entire career.
If Westbrook actually buys into this bench role and has a positive mindset about it and commits to it then the Lakers could actually strike gold on this. If he shows any displeasure and starts being a distraction, it is an excuse to eventually remove him from the rotation altogether.
At its best, there is potential for Westbrook to actually be productive in 25 or so minutes off the bench. If Westbrook could commit to being a version of Rajon Rondo for the Lakers that would be exceptional. Rondo had similar holes in his game with shooting and defense but he committed to this bench captain role late in his career and he played a huge role on the 2020 championship team.
3 massive preseason issues that will doom the Lakers season
The Los Angeles Lakers have shown some massive issues with the team this preseason that is going to doom the 2022-23 season.
But the no. 1 thing it takes for him to be successful is buy-in from Westbrook. That is the main thing that Lakers fans should be watching on Friday night. If Westbrook doesn’t buy in, it never will work.