Loosing to the Spurs this past week, Lakers fans and pundits have been coming up with all sorts of reasons as to why their team failed. The most persistent rumor was that LeBron James wanted out because he didn’t want to play for a losing team. It’s true that it doesn’t look good when your star player wants another shot at free agency but remember in 2004 how Kobe Bryant walked away from his superstar contract?
The “lakers trade” is a trade that the Lakers made in order to acquire Anthony Davis. The lakers traded their young players and picks for Davis, which many people believe was not worth it.
When LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers acquired Russell Westbrook from the Washington Wizards, it was the offseason’s biggest deal. The management seemed to feel that Russ was the missing piece, that a Big Three consisting of him, LeBron, and Anthony Davis was the nucleus that LA needed.
That was almost a year and a half ago. Things haven’t quite gone as planned.
Now, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith has thrown his latest hot take on the matter, and it just reinforces what many already knew only a few weeks into the 2021-22 season: Russ isn’t a member of this club.
The Russell Westbrook experiment has been a colossal failure.
The Los Angeles Lakers’ Russell Westbrook looks on before a game against the New Orleans Pelicans at Crypto.com Arena. | Getty Images/Michael Owens
The Lakers are currently in ninth position in the Western Conference, one game ahead of the New Orleans Pelicans. The Pelicans are the same ones that haven’t had Zion Williamson for a single game this season.
Los Angeles isn’t even sure whether they’ll make the playoffs. The Portland Trail Blazers are in rebuilding mode, but they’re just three games behind LBJ and company. Portland is 4-6 in its past ten games without Damian Lillard, while the Lakers are 3-7.
On his end, Bron has been doing all he can. But AD has been out for the most of the season, and Westbrook hasn’t lived up to his half of the agreement, to say the least.
The 2016-17 NBA MVP is enjoying his poorest statistical season since his second season in the league, in 2009-10. He’s averaging 18.1 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 7.2 assists per game, but he’s only shooting 43.4 percent overall and 28.4 percent from three.
He is inefficient and turns the ball over four times every night because he can’t stretch the floor.
Even a full-strength Russ wouldn’t have been enough to put this LA version in contention for the championship. However, the fact that he’s performed so badly and hasn’t been able to find any type of useful role has added to the season’s misery.
During a recent appearance on NBA Countdown, Stephen A. took things a step further.
Russ, according to Stephen A. Smith, does not deserve to wear purple and gold.
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Anyone in the league, even the casual viewer, can see that Russ doesn’t belong with LeBron and AD. But, as is his wont, Smith went even farther, claiming that Westbrook doesn’t even deserve to be a Laker.
After a loss to the Clippers, he said the team’s performance was “butt ugly” and then went in on the former Oklahoma City Thunder star via NBA on ESPN:
Listen, we all know (Westbrook) has had a poor season, but he’s still Russell Westbrook.
He’s never tried to deceive us. But, regardless of what has transpired with Russell Westbrook this season, when I saw him at the postgame press conference last night, it was the first time I looked at him and thought, “He does not deserve to be a Laker.”
Russell Westbrook’s performance with the Lakers, according to Stephen A. Smith
Stephen A. resumed his tirade, chastising Russ for his alleged “lack of expectations” despite playing for a renowned organization like the Lakers and alongside LeBron James. However, he had already effectively put the Russ-LA experiment to rest.
Russell Westbrook’s future with the Lakers seems to be bleak.
The next weekend, reports surfaced about how The Brodie’s connection with the Lakers organization had come to an end. According to Marc Stein, it was “impossible” for the two to spend another season together.
The minute rumblings emerged out of LA at the trade deadline that Westbrook may be traded for John Wall, it seemed like the divorce was a foregone conclusion. The most recent findings only corroborate what the majority of people already understood.
The experiment was a colossal flop, and the season is finally coming to an end in a few weeks.
It came to the point that the UCLA alumnus from Lawndale, Calif., didn’t feel like he belonged with his local club. That he didn’t deserve to be a Laker in the first place.
NBA.com provided all data.
Russell Westbrook Is Putting the Final Nails in His Laker Coffin RELATED: Russell Westbrook Is Putting the Final Nails in His Laker Coffin
The “tht lakers” is a team that doesn’t deserve to be in the NBA. They have been mediocre at best and they are not even close to being one of the top teams in the league.
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