Bring Russell Westbrook Into Games Off-The-Bench
Trading for Russell Westbrook is looking like one of the biggest mistakes the Lakers have ever made, especially since they gave up three key secondary talents in Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and Montrezl Harrell to acquire him, all of which are better players than the Lakers have outside of their three All-Star talents.
At this point in the year since everything the Lakers have tried to do has failed, Frank Vogel might as well bench Russell Westbrook and try something completely new.
Westbrook has never come off the bench before in his career, but given the personnel the Lakers have, putting him on the bench may be the best move they can make for one key reason.
LeBron James is the main facilitator and playmaker on the Lakers and the team knew them when they traded for Russell Westbrook. Why they went forward with the trade is a completely different argument, but this situation was doomed for failure from the start because you cannot pair two heavily ball-reliant players with one another and expect someone to suddenly become an off-the-ball wizard.
LATEST NBA NEWS & TRADE RUMORS: Lakers Legend Calls Out Russell Westbrook For Approach
Russell Westbrook is one of the worst three-point shooters in the league and LeBron James, while he has improved as a three-point shooter, will not and cannot play off-the-ball. He needs the ball in his hands in order to be effective, as does Russell Westbrook.
Having both of these players with one another on the floor just cannot work, so the best thing the Lakers can do is take a page out of the 2014-15 Kentucky Wildcats book and start using “platoons”.
With LeBron James leading “Group A” and Russell Westbrook leading “Group B”, the Lakers would avoid the conflict of having Westbrook and James on the floor together and more importantly, Russell Westbrook could take advantage of his athleticism.
Virtually no team in the league has players on their bench who are quick and agile enough to contain Russell Westbrook once he gets going, so putting him up against bench players should be a no-brainer decision for Frank Vogel and his coaching staff.
LATEST NBA NEWS & TRADE RUMORS: Lakers Legend Calls Out Russell Westbrook For Approach
As long as the Lakers and Westbrook are on the same page with this idea and they sit down to explain their thought process with him, this system could work in theory and help lead the Lakers to success heading into the play-in tournament.
They will most likely still exit the playoffs in the first round, should they make the playoffs, but at least the Lakers would have tried something different instead of just sitting back and letting their season go to waste.
After all, management and ownership are paying a ton of money in taxes to field this team, so they might as well try everything they can to be the best version of themselves right?
