One of the biggest talking points of last season that has also carried on to this one is Russell Westbrook’s struggles with the Los Angeles Lakers. When the team acquired Westbrook, there were concerns that he might not be able to fit in alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis, and that proved to be the case as well.
On paper, it was a great idea to have 3 perennial All-Stars on the team, but they didn’t consider that it was a terrible fit and paid the price for it with a 33-49 record. Westbrook got the bulk of the blame for their failures as he was widely accused of not being willing to adjust to playing with someone like LeBron, but someone who was within the organization doesn’t believe that to be the case.
Former Lakers Assistant Coach Explained Why Russell Westbrook Struggled Last Season
Mike Penberthy was an assistant coach on the Lakers from 2019 to this past season, after which he and a couple of other assistants were not retained when new head coach Darvin Ham came in. Penberthy witnessed first-hand what was going on behind the scenes and was quite sympathetic towards Russ.
via Ringer:
“I just feel like he accepted a role he had probably never played in before, not knowing how hard it would be,” said Mike Penberthy, a former Lakers assistant coach. “It probably just felt like he was in quicksand the whole time.” Penberthy remembers Westbrook as a player who was “very coachable.” He “listened, he wasn’t stubborn” and wanted to “have the truth told to him.”
“He’d come into practice, and he would be frustrated with how he was playing,” Penberthy said. “It’s hard, though, when you’re answering questions after a game and you haven’t played as well as you want to, to give that type of response. He feels like he’s being attacked, so he’s going to put his defenses up. And by the end of the year he just …” Penberthy pauses. “I mean, it just, when it rained it poured, you know?”
It does seem like he really tried to make it work last season, but it just didn’t happen. As Penberthy points out, Westbrook had never played that kind of a role for a team, and it was a lot harder for him to perform in it. It also dispels some of the rumors that were floating around about Westbrook not being coachable and being very stubborn.
In what is a positive, it seems Westbrook and LeBron have more synergy on the court this time around, as per Jovan Buha of the Athletic. Perhaps they just needed a bit more time to figure things out, and while it won’t ever be a perfect fit, we might just see some improvement from last season.
