Russell Westbrook’s fit has been one of the biggest questions for the Los Angeles Lakers this season. There’s no doubt that the point guard struggled a lot last season, and the point guard’s woes continued into this season.
Recently, Lakers insider Jovan Buha of The Athletic claimed that the Russell Westbrook situation is “becoming more awkward by the day”, while also relaying a Darvin Ham quote that suggested, “bigger rotational changes may be on the horizon”.
But Westbrook’s broken shot and the subsequent effect it has on the Lakers’ 30th-ranked offense is exacerbating many of their issues. The Lakers already have spacing and shot-making limitations. But no other Lakers are being ignored to the extent that Westbrook is (besides Davis, though he obviously brings many other positives to the table). This is also one of the few issues the Lakers can actually control.
This situation is becoming more awkward by the day. Westbrook has gone from being the elephant in the room to being the oxygen in the room. Postgame press conferences are devolving into Westbrook-centric interrogations, putting Ham, Westbrook and his teammates in unenviable positions as they continually dance around the obvious.
For what it’s worth, Ham said he isn’t concerned with how Westbrook will respond to being benched over the final 12.4 seconds, indicating bigger rotational changes may be on the horizon.
“We don’t have time for feelings or people being in their feelings,” Ham said. “For one person to be in their feelings about when and where and how they should be in the game, I don’t have any time for that. We’re not pushing that. We’re not allowing that narrative to even exist in our program that we’re doing to get the Lakers back to where they should be, and that’s at the top of the food chain.”
There is no doubt that it must be awkward for teammates to continuously deal with questions about Russell Westbrook. At some point, it seems as though there should be a new topic of discussion, but thus far, Russell Westbrook’s struggles have dominated the conversation about the Los Angeles Lakers.
Bringing Russell Westbrook Off The Bench Could Benefit The Lakers
Though Russell Westbrook has been a starting-level point guard for the majority of his career, it seems as though a switch in his role could help him do better on the Los Angeles Lakers. Playing as a sixth man would allow him to be freer offensively and be in his comfort zone as a dominant on-ball playmaker.
Hopefully, we see Russell Westbrook experience a bounce-back from this point on. There’s no doubt that he’s been getting a lot of hate, but perhaps he can prove the haters wrong as the season goes on.
