The Los Angeles Lakers lost to the Sacramento Kings on Friday night to move to an awful 2-10 on the 2022-23 season. This gives Los Angeles the worst record in the entire league, setting up the New Orleans Pelicans nicely to get Victor Wembanyama or Scoot Henderson.
It has been mostly bleak for Los Angeles this season but there was a brief moment of hope for the fanbase halfway through the year. Russell Westbrook was moved to the bench and there was legitimate chatter of him winning Sixth Man of the Year, with fans demanding that he should be playing more.
The Lakers won two games in a row and all seemed great. Since then, Los Angeles has lost four in a row and it is clear that the Westbrook for Sixth Man of the Year narrative was completely overblown. Those same Westbrook defenders who tried saying told you so are quickly eating crow, as Westbrook hasn’t been very good since.
The Russell Westbrook honeymoon should officially end for Lakers fans after Friday.
While it is always more fun as a fan to look at things through an optimistic lense, it has become abundantly clear that fans were overreacting after just two games. Those that have watched the Lakers lose these four games (and didn’t just look at the box score) know that Westbrook really hasn’t changed much.
It does not matter how close he gets to a triple-double, he is still going to seriously burn the team in big moments as he did against the Portland Trail Blazers earlier this season. That happened yet again on Friday, with Russ deciding he simply didn’t want to play defense on the biggest possession of the game.
I'm kind of at a loss here over what happened to Russell Westbrook on what turned out to be the game-winning basket by De'Aaron Fox.
— Sam Quinn (@SamQuinnCBS) November 12, 2022
He just kind of freezes on the Kevin Huerter ghost screen, and Fox blows by him for the floater. pic.twitter.com/pUl7Y3wzv7
How can you defend someone who does this? This has always been Westbrook’s problem, even when he was at his best and was putting together triple-doubles every night. He would always make key mistakes in key spots, whether it be on offense or defense.
That is why he has never been a winning player. That is why he has won just one playoff series since Kevin Durant left him in OKC despite having a long of superstar teammates. This is why Westbrook will never work.
In the end, it really doesn’t matter. This team is not good enough to do anything and trading assets to get rid of Westbrook is not going to be enough to change the fate of the 2022-23 Lakers. This is a bad basketball team put together by a bad front office led by bad ownership.
The quicker you give up on Russell Westbrook and the Los Angeles Lakers, the better it will be for your peace of mind.