[OFFICIAL] Russell Westbrook as a Los Angeles Laker thread

LOL

 

Are Lakers fans and media and personnel completely delusional about the value of their toxic assets?

 

It's hard to get over big names sometimes. If ALL the Lakers were 7 years younger across the board with their team from the beginning of the season (including Rondo) they may have not lost a game all year.

Imagine a starting 5 of

Westbrook
Lebron
Ariza
Anthony Davis
Dwight Howard

2nd unit of

Rondo
Carmelo
DeAndre Jordan

All of these guys in their late 20's and a young Anthony Davis. It has happened many times. The Nets are on the cusp of it now with Durant and Harden.

 

The problem with that 2027 1st rounder they're using as bait is that it's in 2027. Sure by then the Lakers could be very very bad and, in turn, that has lottery potential but no GM in 2022 is going to help out the Lakers and hope that they'll stick around to make that selection. Packaging it with other assets for a player is a possibility but 5 years is a long time.

 

Lakers do a GREAT JOB of kicking that lotto can down the road
They keep in the middle at worse

Rocket River

 

Lakers haven’t agreed to lifting all lottery protections on the 2027 pick from what I have heard. The Rockets would likely do it (allow protections) but no one else in the league will.

Even then the Lakers 2027 pick isn’t as good as it sounds because they are typically good at signing free agents.

The move for Westbrook by the Rockets was questionable at the time, but the move by the Lakers was all arrogance and hubris. For all the talk of Westbrook’ teammates loving him, the Rockets and Wizards were relieved to get him off the roster. The same thing is happening in LA now. Russ thinks compromise is for p*****s.

 

He had the same issue with the Rockets as well. Westbrook could dish it out but not take it. He had no issue complaining about MDA not adjusting how the team ran practices because that’s what Russ wanted. He had no problem pointing out missed assignments by Harden or Tucker. However as soon as MDA or Harden or Gordon tried to hold Westbrook accountable, Russ became pissed and defensive.

He isn’t a bad guy, plays hard and from everything I have heard he is a good guy away from the game… but he is selfish and inflexible. It’s funny that LeBron believed he could force change when KD and Harden both tried and couldn’t.

 

No free agent is going to the Lakers if AD leaves and LeBron finally looks old at 40 or leaves himself. They had a warchest of cap space post Kobe and could only get Mozgov and Luol Deng. It took years of drafting high to get the assets to suddenly look attractive to a star free agent. No chance LeBron goes there if they didn't have all those young guys (plus their own future picks) to package for a second star.

By 2027, Lakers could have no stars left, no young players they drafted, and few assets to trade. They'd have to bottom out again. The 2027 pick is possibly the most valuable on the market for me.

 

Wow another Ben Simmons in the making...

 

Westbrook actually could have been considered a valuable player for longer in his career if he would have acted more like Ben Simmons and understood how bad he is at shooting and didn’t do it so much.

Westbrooks most impressive(ly dumb) feat as an NBA player:

2012/2013 OKC leader in FGA per game was not Kevin Durant. It was Westbrook

2019/2020 HOU leader in FGA per game was not James Harden. It was Westbrook.

Westbrook, likely to go down as the most inefficient high volume chucker EVER, playing with 2 of the most efficient high volume scorers EVER found a way to shoot more than both of them over full seasons.

Amazing.

 

It very well could turn out that way. That pick is years away and AD will be likely washed up by then as well.

 

The Lakers wish Westbrook would turn into Ben Simmons.

 

Putting Harden on Russ is completely ignoring him? Oh right... never mind. (Just kiddin)

 

I was looking at what you said regarding stats. I never saw before until now that Westbrook was a 80+% at the FT line. Was 78% his sophmore year then 8 years straight of 80% plus. What in the hell happened. Since then he has had 2 70% seasons and 3 80% seasons. How the hell did that happen?

 

A fan of Westbrook would point to the finger injuries he has constantly had for years and say that has impacted his shooting. A critic would say he doesn’t work hard enough on it.

 

Yeah, his FT% is really weird. Experts usually use FT% to gauge a player's shooting abilities. He fell from an 80% shooter to a 60% shooter in two seasons.

Hmm, that's the year when Melo joined OKC. Melo must have done something to Russ's psyche...

 

I hope they strike out on superstar FAs in 2023-2024 just like they did with Kawhi and PG.