Russell Westbrook’s future has been the biggest storyline on the Los Angeles Lakers ever since the team played its last game of the 2021-22 season in April. After surviving a summer full of trade rumors, Westbrook entered the 2022-23 season on the roster with question marks hanging over his head.
After a bad start that included an 0-5 record, there was an arrival of hope among the fanbase that the team may have figured something out with Westbrook. Darvin Ham moved Westbrook to the bench and the results were great.
Westbrook provided the spark that the Lakers so desperately needed off the bench and was seemingly buying into his role as a sixth man. It took just two wins for Lakers fans to start tossing out Westbrook’s name in the Sixth Man of the Year conversation, showing just how excited the fanbase was.
However, there is always the other side of the coin and that side includes Westbrook not playing at all in crunch time against the New Orleans Pelicans earlier this week. The fact that Westbrook didn’t play in crunch time isn’t concerning; it is how Westbrook responded to that reality. And as ESPN’s Dave McMenamin outlines, it was not great:
It is not new for Westbrook to be upset with his usage, whether it be him blaming a hamstring injury on him coming off the bench in the preseason or Frank Vogel benching him in crunch time last season.
This proves why Russell Westbrook will never work on the Los Angeles Lakers.
As great as it has looked off the bench for Russell Westbrook, his stats do not matter if he is not buying into the coaching staff and accepting the fact that he probably should not be on the court at the end of close games.
If Westbrook is not buying into his team’s philosophy then he is going to continue to remain a distraction. The storyline of whether or not he will be traded will continue to hang over this team and like it or not, it will impact their ceiling.
We’ve seen Westbrook play a prominent role on the Lakers and average over 30 minutes per game. It simply does not work and the team frankly needs him to take a step back if they are going to be successful. If he is still getting upset over his playing time then that is only going to create tension, and further hurt his play as well.
To be honest, fans jumped the gun with the team figuring out this Westbrook situation anyway. The overreactions were strong after two wins with fans forgetting the fact that the Lakers were still 2-5 with one of the worst net ratings in the league.
Friday’s Jazz game will prove that Lakers won Patrick Beverley trade
It has not been pretty thus far this season but Friday night will prove that the Lakers won the Patrick Beverley trade with the Jazz.
Heck, if Dyson Daniels just makes his free throws then the Lakers would be 1-6 and the fanbase would be feeling much different despite it being the exact same team with Westbrook producing at the exact same level as he is with them at 2-5.