Not much went right for Russell Westbrook in his first season with the Los Angeles Lakers. He was heavily criticized for his struggles throughout the season as he failed to fit in and the team has been trying to trade him away for a while now.
Still, new coach Darvin Ham gave Russ his seal of approval and has claimed at various points that he is looking forward to coaching the guard. He also outlined a defense-first role for Westbrook but Jovan Buha recently stated that Russ had no interest in a defense-first off-ball role. Zach Lowe on his podcast also felt that it was pointless to ask Russ to perform this kind of role, as last season showed how unwilling he was to do things like setting screens.
via The Lowe Post (23:27 mark):
“Redirecting Russ’ game means cut off the ball, shoot corner 3s, he shot 44% on corner 3s (23-51), doesn’t want to take them, screen for LeBron. You can tell they had a team meeting about Russ screening for LeBron before the second game of the season against the Memphis Grizzlies. Screened 8 times for Lebron in that game, it worked pretty well.”
“The whole idea was let’s take our worst shooter, screen for maybe the best player of all time, become Draymond Green roll, pass all that. After that game, here are the number of ball screens Russ set in the 6 subsequent games, this is from Second Spectrum 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, and 1. He did not set more than 2 in a basketball game in which the professional Los Angeles Lakers were involved until March. He didn’t set more than 4 in any other game in the entire season.”
It’s clear that Frank Vogel identified the right path forward with Russ all the way back in the second game last season and while Westbrook went along with it for a game, he had no interest in carrying on with it. Not setting more than 4 screens in a game all season except once, is a clear indication of that.
A leopard doesn’t change its spots and no matter who you are, Russell Westbrook is not going to change the way he plays the game. You need this kind of confidence in yourself to reach the very top, as he has, but it will ultimately end up being his downfall as well.
