When the Los Angeles Lakers decided to pair up Russell Westbrook with LeBron James and Anthony Davis, the majority on the outside felt that it wasn’t the right move. Westbrook had been a ball-dominant player for the majority of his career and the fit just didn’t seem right, as was proven on the court when they played together.
In part due to the ill-advised trade, the Lakers ended up with a woeful 33-49 record in the 2021-22 campaign as they failed to even make the play-in tournament. Another big factor behind their failings was all the injuries they suffered along the way, as both LeBron and Davis missed large portions of the season. While there isn’t a lot of belief that things will work out well next season if they decide to bring back Westbrook, even if everyone is healthy, Byron Scott does believe that they can be great if they stay healthy.
Byron Scott on Lakers to @BovadaOfficial: "I’m hoping this year that they’re healthy, I’m hoping that they’ve been working out and getting ready for the season, getting ready for the preseason and all that stuff because I think those guys together could be dynamic." https://t.co/66t3jn3GVC
— 👑 Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson (@ScoopB) August 31, 2022
Scott is trying to be positive here, considering his deep ties to the Lakers. While they should definitely improve if AD and LeBron manage to not miss a lot of time, the question is, would they improve enough to be a serious contender for the title? The answer to that question is probably no. The fit just does not work, which is why they have been trying to trade Westbrook for a while now. It would appear that the Jazz and the Pacers are the most likely landing spots for Russ, with the former being the more likely of the two.
It would be best for all parties if they part ways as this experiment just hasn’t worked and it won’t work going forward either. While pairing up three stars usually seems like a good idea when you look at it on paper, this never seemed like a good one at any point and it’s surprising that no one in the top brass at the Lakers felt that way. They’ll now have to give up whatever draft picks they have left, just to offload him and how they’d wish that they had never made this move in the first place.
During this segment with Bovada, Scott also gave huge praise to Kyrie Irving, who had been heavily linked with the Lakers. He stated that if Irving can play the way we know he is capable of playing, then he’s going to be one of the best point guards of all time. The Lakers are left wishing that they could have landed Irving and maybe if they had managed to do so, then they would have been serious contenders for the title.
