Lakers fans need to accept this reality about sixth man Russell Westbrook
By Jason Reed
The Los Angeles Lakers have won two games in a row to move to 2-5 on the season and fans are actually seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. The defense continues to play at a very high level while offensively, the team has been playing much better in the last two games.
A common trend in the two wins is Russell Westbrook coming off the bench. Westbrook has actually fit in quite well on the bench as he has played more productively and has given the team a jolt in the second unit that was needed.
This has caused some Lakers fans to buy back into Westbrook, including some of our writers here at Lake Show Life. Benchbrook, as he has been called, is seemingly a new version of the player that fans spent all summer begging to be traded. For many, this creates new opportunities for the team and can serve as a new beginning.
The roses smell nice right now but a lot of fans’ judgment is being clouded by two games. It is totally okay to ride the high of winning two games in a row but Lakers fans cannot forget the reality of the situation as it pertains to Russ.
Russell Westbrook is going to end up being a Lakers’ placeholder for Dennis Schroder.
I know that Westbrook looks good on the bench right now and there are some (absurd) chatters about him being in the running for Sixth Man of the Year. At the end of the day, though, when the season is all said and done, this sixth-man role is going to be Dennis Schroder’s off the bench.
Let’s not forget that the Lakers reportedly waited so long to sign Schroder because they wanted to trade Westbrook first before making the signing. Schroder has always been the team’s Westbrook contingency plan and as promising as Westbrook has been off the bench, Schroder can provide the same kind of spark-plug impact as a sixth man.
These last two games — and Westbrook’s impact in them — have been overblown. Yes, he has looked better, but he is still a replaceable guard that is making just under $50 million this season. It still suits the team best to turn that into 2-3 quality rotation players and have Schroder replace Westbrook and do 95% of what Westbrook is doing.
Darvin Ham’s usage of Westbrook should tell the entire story. He can spin the Sixth Man of the Year narrative all he wants but he still doesn’t play Russ in crunch time. Westbrook didn’t play at all in crunch time against the New Orleans Pelicans, finishing with just 25 bench minutes in an overtime game.
Troy Brown Jr. had more minutes in this game than Westbrook! This isn’t some revival for the former MVP in the purple and gold, this is a slow phase-out for a player that the team very obviously didn’t want on the roster at the beginning of the season.
It is just funny how narratives work in basketball. If Dyson Daniels doesn’t clank both free throws at the end of the fourth quarter then the Pelicans win this game. Heck, it took a Herculean shot by Matt Ryan to even send it to overtime after that.
If none of that happens then the Lakers are 1-6 right now. They would be the exact same team and Westbrook would have the exact same stats. But the narrative around the team would be much, much different. Instead of this “new beginning”, fans would be hoping over on the trade machine this morning and working out different Westbrook trades.
Don’t let two wins (one of which was a miracle) take your mind off the bigger picture. There are some special aspects of this team and if the Lakers are ever going to reach their ceiling, they have to trade Russell Westbrook. That is the entire reason why Schroder is on the roster to begin with.