Lakers and Russell Westbrook union is over

(News4usonline) – The Russell Westbrook experiment never bore fruit for the Los Angeles Lakers. Westbrook never did fit into the Laker way. From the time that he was traded from the Washington Wizards, it has been rocky for Westbrook and the Lakers. And now he’s gone. 

It is sad to see that Westbrook and LeBron James were not able to work their magic together, along with forward Anthony Davis. This was supposed to be the next dynamic threesome. That hope never materialized for the Lakers and for Westbrook. And now comes the time that both parties have to go their separate ways. 

The Lakers reportedly have traded Westbrook to the Utah Jazz in a three-team swap that also involves the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Lakers were able to pick up D’Angelo Russell and Malik Beasley, and another part of the trade puzzle in hopes this may lift the team into a postseason run. 

Even at the No. 13 spot in the Western Conference, the Lakers have an outside chance of getting there. The Lakers were supposed to be in that position already. But issues with Westbrook had clouded that outlook from the beginning. There were questions about whether Westbrook would even fit into a system where James dominates the ball. 

What the Lakers did was try to mesh two ball-controlling Alphas together and hoped they would bring their collective talents together to win a title. That fizzled. Big time. And it went all bad for the short time that Westbrook, now with his fourth team since the 2019-20 season, was here in Los Angeles.   

Anyone with an ounce of basketball sense knows that Westbrook is a future Hall of Famer. However, after spending the bulk of his highlight-reel career with the Oklahoma City Thunder, Westbrook has been nothing short of a traveling basketball pariah in search of something he may never get. 

When the Lakers and head coach Darvin Ham regulated Westbrook to come off the bench it was obvious that this family union was not going to work or had not been working to the team’s satisfaction. When he was traded, Westbrook averaged just 15.9 points a game, by far his lowest-scoring season since his rookie year.

But let’s be clear about something. The Lakers are not the No. 13 team in the Western Conference because Westbrook didn’t rise to the expectations of the team. 

There is a whole of blame to go around. Rob Pelinka, the Lakers’ general manager, traded for Westbrook. Davis has been in and out of the lineup for long stretches at a time. That certainly didn’t help the team’s chemistry. And then there is James, the man who just celebrated becoming the NBA’s all-time scoring champ. 

It never made sense to pair Westbrook with James. Westbrook operates best when he has the ball in his hands about 90 percent of the time. Ditto for James. So this was just a crash waiting to happen. Now the Lakers must live in the aftermath, good or bad, as a result of that union.

If the Lakers fail to make the postseason they won’t have Westbrook around as their punching bag to blame. I’m not one for conspiracy theories, but is it a coincidence that Westbrook wound up being traded away from the Lakers the day after James passed Kareem Abdul Jabbar as the league’s No. 1 scorer? 

After winning the NBA title following the 2019-20 season, the Lakers have floundered. Getting Westbrook through the trade mechanism gave the Lakers three viable and distinguished stars in their own right. Davis was the dominant inside force. Westbrook brought instant offense with his explosive style of play. 

James and his constant flirtation with the triple-double (scoring, rebounding, and assists) was the clean-up man. The Lakers fired Frank Vogel and brought in Ham, now in his first season on the job as the team’s head coach. It seems like the Lakers are making all these moves hoping something will stick against the wall. Unloading Westbrook was the team’s latest salvo. 

So what now? You get rid of a guy that you perceived to be a headache and the only other trade asset outside of Davis and James. The Lakers are officially on the clock. For the Lakers, it’s about making the postseason or shutting up. No more whining. No more piling on the Westbrook blame game. It’s time for the Lakers to go for broke. Otherwise, it’s going to be another offseason with more questions than answers.