Russell Westbrick Discussion: Clipper Gonna Clip

Here's that portion of the article

Blaming Vogel for Russ being inflexible is a joke. Should've brought on the Russ whisperer as an assistant instead of being cheap. Running it back is not going to work, I don't care what coach comes through that door.

Phil being a Russ fan is interesting. Talk about the worst triangle fit EVER.

 

Yep.

Him coming back is a real possibility.

 

i mean, if we can't move him for a reasonable return, it might be the most sensible thing. it would suck, short-term, and i strongly disagree that another coach is likely to fix things with respect to russ, but his contract becomes more enticing as teams give up on their seasons, which is hard to do in the summer.

the best return on his expiring will be in february. i just have a hard time believing we can stomach that wait and what it might do to the season.

 

It will be interesting to see who the final candidates are going to be. If Lebron and AD play together in 25% of the games again this season tho, it's a wrap regardless. Gotta catch a break on the injury front here soon, or we might have to blow it all up. I see reports about Lebron leaning towards 1 year deals...I guess we'll see on that subject over the summer.

 

For the love of God

 

Vogel was given an impossible task. It's not all on Vogel to fit a square peg into a round hole, Westbrook had to change up his game to fit with Lebron and AD, which he didn't. Despite the bad play from Westbrook, Vogel didn't throw him under the bus, actually the opposite happened

 

Yea it was Vogel's fault that Westbrook blew layups, bricked jumpshots, and put no effort on defense. *rolls eyes*

 

The level of sensitivity from the Russ household. Jesus!

 

:THT Heart Hands:

 

The HoopsHype guys had this to say in their off- season team rumor piece for Charlotte.

GH's trade market (they lead into this anticipating Bridges will command $25m a year)

Boone misses the point of getting Russ. It's for the expiring salary not the player.

 

Even for the salary, you have to think about the impact on the team and on your best player. Or are they tanking? They will max out Bridges to then tank? They can make the playoffs through play-in in the East, they don't seem to be in a position to tank with their 2 stars getting to their prime.
Only way is that Borrego or their GM have this crazy idea that Russ and LaMelo could work together and that it would be good for LaMelo to learn from Russ (lol) during a year, as they have a similar game.
Other way is that they have a masterplan to attack Free Agency in '23, which could make sense. They have shown great depth this year, so they could be willing to lose Rozier and Gordon without having to get someone else for those positions. That way, they would develop some players and add a 3rd star next year. Hope they read this lol

 

I agree with your argument though: look both Bridges and Ball are excellent players but I don't think they're going to be guys like Giannis or Luka who are good enough to be contenders just by themselves and some contemporary. Better for them to get more high picks and be more like Memphis. Both the dudes are on rookie deals so you still have time build up the team w/o risk of losing either

 

I'm of the opinion the Lakers would have won more with DJ augustine was there the whole season than Wesbtrook so I agree that they would win more games with Conley.
That being said Conley is 34, has had several injuries throughout his career, and is coming off an absolutely terrible playoff series. Dallas isn't a bad defensive team but they aren't some Bad Boy Pistons either and he was terrible on both offense and defense. So cooked for me is paying 24 million for 2 more years for a guy who is at best a backup PG in the playoffs.

Ends up being the same amount of money for the same amount of uselessness give or take

 

dallas was a good defensive team this year. and i get your point, but if we got conley for russ with no other salary commitments and giving up no picks, that's a huge win.

 

Something is not adding up to me about the Amick and O'Ram article.

They are saying that Frank was the a big part of the problem with Russ, correct?

I was listening to Ireland who is close to the team. He said that Vogel would defend Westbrook; there were assistants that urged Frank to bring Russ off the bench, but Frank wouldn't do it.

Ireland claimed Frank would say something to the effect of, "if we want to win a championship, we have to keep Russ in the starting five and try to get him back to like MVP Russ."

It seems like the Lakers are attempting to prepare us for Russ returning, which is possible, but I still think they are trying to leverage their position as much as they can before they attempt to ship him off this summer.

Idk if it will work or not. Just my .02 cents.

 

Frank was suppose to just give Russ the ball and have him run wild. He needs the ball every possession to have value. There is a false narrative that Lebron had him spotting up in a corner when in actuality he had the ball the most out of everyone on the roster. He was just brutally inefficient with the ball.

 

This. And I remembered thinking too WTF when I read that basically Frank was being Frank …. a players’ coach (again) and sticking with the supremely struggling player that Russ was this year …. knowing that he needed Russ to get back to some level of himself for the Lakers to have any chance at a ring. But Russ in his defensive self unaware bubble doesn’t even recognize that reality.