Russell Westbrick Discussion: Clipper Gonna Clip

vogel doesn't care because he's known he's fired since like, game 20. i don't blame him. and i really think if it were up to vogel entirely, russ would have moved to the bench a long time ago.

 

Followed up his best game of 2022 with one of his worst. I get Houston runs a lot of small ball, which helps him but the swing shouldn't be THAT drastic. He was the worst player on the court.

 

Me too.

 

That’s what I immediately thought when reading the quote, but watching the actual video, I don’t think Lebron was intending for that to be a shot at Russ at all.

I really feel that his comments at All Star weekend were a tantrum that he didn’t expect to blow up in his face the way it did. So since then, he’s been in damage control and really buttering up the Lakers fans, the history of the franchise, etc.

So I think this quote was just a general one, and if anything more about himself. The question asked was prefaced along the lines of “You feed off the positive energy from the crowd, but that hasn’t always been there this year through the struggles” (I’m paraphrasing).

There was some discussion in the media after the blowout loss to the Pelicans when the crowd started booing after a Lebron turnover to end the third quarter, some media pundits saying how disrespectful it was for LA to boo Lebron (which was a dumb take, since the crowd wasn’t even really booing Lebron specifically, just booing a bad play and a long stretch of uninspired basketball). So I think Lebron was moreso responding to that than all the Westbrook criticisms.

But with that said… based on body language, I do think Lebron is completely over Russ. Just so visibly defeated whenever Russ bricks a layup or turns it over. I think he’s given up on trying to encourage Russ, and they’re both just kinda going through the motions in terms of their relationship with each other.

I can totally envision them beefing down the line. Like after their careers are over, I wouldn’t be surprised if Russ complains about his time as a Laker, tries to put some of the blame on Lebron not allowing Russ to be himself.

 

This is funny.

He is probably made Klutch wanted him gone.

 

To be fair, much like Russ in this collective 55 point outing between him and Lebron, people downplay Smush’s historic performance in that game against the Raptors.

I mean come on, he combined with Kobe to put up 94 points!

 

Yeah you can totally see the whole head down, big sigh after WB smokes another layup after a good pass.
I mean Reaves is getting 2-3 bukets a game now off just cutting hard to the basket and then the whole team has to watch Russ put up bad shots and blow easy layups.

 

No, you can't dream. Stop it.

 

So who in the organization is wanting Russ on the floor?
He’s trade value is 50 feet below the basement level right now and there’s literally nothing Russ can do to bring it back up. He’s mentally already out the door. His play still is awful on BOTH ends of the floor and it’s not going to magically get better.
It will be a massively successful summer if Rob can move him. I will throw a party if it happens.

 

I've been thinking about Russ and this team. I was one of the people who really liked the Russ signing mainly because, unlike many of our guards, he could get to the rim, he attacked the paint and he played with fire all the time. I also liked his passing out of the paint. With guys like Bron and AD I really thought his attacking would stop us from settling for those long iso 3's and soft iso midrange shots. I also hoped it would help with us getting more rebounds as happens when guys attack the paint. The one thing I was right about was that Russ can still get to the rim with the best of them. What I didn't expect was how many flashbacks to another Guard from our yesteryear with the way he misses the layups. It is clear to see why he misses so many as he doesn't seem to have the feel to lay up the soft touch after the explosiveness to get there.

After watching last game I had flashbacks of CL days where every one cringed every time D Fish went to the rack. The difference is we didn't care when DFish shot the 3 (end of games for sure) but Russ doesn't have a shot nor the idea of the shot. Now connecting those I can see how so many are done with him. It's unfortunate he hasn't figured out how to finish and how to adjust. Yea I think he is gone after this year which is tragic cause if dude made half his blown layups we would be easy in playoff contention.

Anyway, just some randomness.

 

Fish missed a lay up once a week but he did everything else well. Leadership, clutch shots and was a soothing presence to everyone from the coaching staff to the players.

Westbrook possesses nothing positive other than being available. That's it. His game and execution is the worst I have ever seen for a player of his caliber. No one worse, ever.

 

i'd rather have 2011-12 ancient d-fish on the team instead of russ

 

I’d rather have an empty bench seat than Russ. Hopefully they revisit that John Wall swap this summer.

 

Pretty much my point already made. He's got his contract $, my man has checked out. His crew begged for a Westbrook change, didn't happen, huge rift between FO and coach staff watch for major overhaul.

 

Let’s also mention that Fish was an very good defender during the title runs.