At one point, Russell Westbrook was one of the best players in the NBA. But since his departure from the Oklahoma City Thunder, Russ’ career has been on a constant decline. Moreover, since joining the Los Angeles Lakers that decline has gained even more speed.
When he was brought to the Purple and Gold, he was expected to turn the fortunes of the team. After all, he was combining his talents with the likes of LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
Instead of making the team better, Westbrook hasn’t been able to be consistent at an individual level. More often than not, he has failed to knock his shots in the basket. On top of that, his constant issue of turning the ball over doesn’t help his case either.
Although Lakers fans were hoping for him to settle down in the team, by now most have already given up on that hope. Apart from fans, it feels like LeBron James supports that notion. Recently, when Brodie airballed a jumper, James completely gave up on defense and looked at Russ with a defeated expression.
James may have given up on the experiment with Westbrook, but there is one person on the Los Angeles Lakers’ roster who still supports him. We are talking about Lakers guard Austin Reaves.
To show his support, Reaves changed his profile picture on his official Instagram account. It could be a coincidence that Reaves changed his profile picture and kept the one featuring Westbrook.
But the timing of the incident suggests that it was indeed done to show support to his teammate. Let’s hope that it has the desired effect on Russ and that he can at least perform well in the remaining games of the season. But it seems unlikely that he can turn around the season at this point.
