After an abysmal season in Los Angeles, Russell Westbrook had to know that his days as a Laker were numbered. He was a bad fit from the start and it wasn’t long at all before he was alienated from the entire rest of the team.
The Lakers tried and failed to swap him for Kyrie Irving. And now, in the aftermath of the Patrick Beverley deal, they have finally decided to trade him once and for all.
The Lakers have already decided they want to trade Russ. What’s in question is how much they’re willing to surrender in the process, and how much truly better they get. The Lakers don’t have enough assets to just bleed them for the sake of making a sideways deal.
While it’s not a confirmed report, it does shed some light on the thinking of the Lakers on Westbrook. While Russ showed flashes of who he could be last season (averages of 18.5 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 7.1 assists per game), he was inefficient, ineffective, and a borderline liability on defense.
It makes sense why the Lakers would want to move on from all of that, especially because trading him is the only real way to improve the team.
“One hundred percent Russell Westbrook is getting traded,” NBA analyst Nick Wright said on his podcast. “Russ is getting traded because he’s the only way to improve the roster. And as much as the Lakers might want to try the most volatile basketball chemistry of any basketball team ever, they are not going to have Russell Westbrook (and Beverly on the same team). Can you imagine the disgust on Russell Westbrook’s face if he gets subbed out of the game and Patrick Beverley’s coming in? That’s not happening.”
While Westbrook was a major problem for the Lakers last season, they had plenty of other obstacles in their way.
Injuries obviously played a huge role, as several key Lakers players missed chunks of time due to various injuries. The team’s lack of depth can also be pinned as a culprit. Besides Carmelo Anthony and Malik Monk, there wasn’t really anybody they could rely on coming off the bench.
Those are just some of the components that could have been at play, but what really matters is how they’ll respond this season. With or without Russ, they need to show some strength and solidarity as a team or face humiliation for the second straight year.
