Russell Westbrick Discussion: Clipper Gonna Clip

Coach Ham has already made himself accountable by promising Laker Nation that the team will be competitive, together and accountable. This starts with himself, Russ, Lebron and AD. The rest are easy. If he doesn't do these three things he loses all credibility before he really even has a chance to get started. He seems like the kind of guy that means what he says and will not throw this opportunity away to appease Russ or Lebron. I don't think AD is a problem so it will be Russ and Lebron. Russ's comments lead me to believe he wasn't happy with Lebron's selfish play and that caused him to pout and not be willing to sacrifice. True or not I don't know. I do believe that what got Ham hired was his willingness to hold the "Superstars" accountable. That is what caused the front office to hire him and cancel other interviews. I am actually excited to see if Ham can get Russ on board. I think it would be the NBA story of the decade if after the disaster of last season we won the championship with these three. Ham would go straight to the hall of fame. I'm bracing for the incoming for a hint of Russ support...lol

 

Latest from Stein on Russ

 

duh. why would we sweeten the pot for houston? at least our guy played. i'm actually kind of glad they played hardball about that, as i think we would have swapped problems otherwise, and it wouldn't have done much except hurt our reputation.

 

At least he's opting in. Him opting out is worst case scenario.

 

Completely support them passing on Wall. The notion we’d throw in draft picks for him is ridiculous.

These guys continue to ignore that Houston needs to move Wall too. They’re going to just sit him again for another season at his salary? It’s crazy no one is calling them out for that.

 

hmmm...i don't know. depends on whether you think the return on his trade or his on-court value outstrips what we could do with the full MLE and BAE. i tend to agree with you, but it's not, as they say, a slam dunk.

 

You could replace the production value of Westbrook from last year with the full MLE and BAE. The only way Westbrook is more valuable is if a trade brings back more value or if he produces at a more comparable level to the years at Washington & Houston.

 

right. and i'm also not seeing a lot of obvious full MLE targets, tbh. i feel like the MLE worked as players intended: a sub-max max that overpays guys. so rare that a full MLE signing is looked back upon with happiness.

 

I'm looking at it this way: the players linked to us in the rumored trades are 2x the value of the full MLE. We would likely be getting at least two of them.

I think Ham could potentiality steal a a Bobby Portis for the full mid level. PJ Tucker would listen to your offer. But I think the real value is you could get two of the guys off the tax payers list.

That said, Anthony Irwin said in today's pod that he's heard that if we had the full mid level, it's not a guarantee that we would be willing to spend it all. That's depressing news you expect from small market teams.

 

oh goodness, that's grim.

why on earth do you agree to the westbrook trade if that's your financial outlook? totally insane.

 

I agree with the majority of what you guys are saying, I just think IF we can get Westbrook at the level of Houston or Washington, we have a better player that is more healthy than anything we get back. Now that’s probably the optimist in me thinking that’s possible, and I fully realise that.

Geez. That makes me think the FO doesn’t believe we have enough with a healthy AD and Lebron alone. And unless we can bring in substantial help - from a trade of Russ or Russ improving - it’s just not worth it and they’d rather get below the tax for future runs.

It’s a small market mentality.

 

The idea of the Lakers making a Westbrook trade that opens up the full MLE, but then not being willing to use the full MLE, isn’t believable to me.

I could understand them not wanting to give the entire 4 year full MLE to any single player if we don’t think there is anybody available in this free agent class worth locking up that much long term money into.

But simply not using that entire slate of money at all? Not trying to split the full MLE into two useful players on short-term deals to give yourself more trade flexibility? Too baffling for me to buy, even considering how incompetent and cheap this FO has appeared.

 

Everyone was high on their own supply. You have a GM who had a championship roster out of the gate, he believes he had one the second time around after flushing the first one but injuries got in the way (probably right). He thinks he has the Midas touch. Bron thinks he's a great shadow GM (who else is putting in hours scouting jr high games and Cedar Ridge High School for AR in the same summer? ). Russ tricked Bron and AD into thinking he was willing or able to fit. I don't think Rob, Bron, AD, or Russ thought there was a chance this wasn't going to work and that blind arrogant ignorance is scary.

 

It just dawned on me today: Westbrook sucks at basketball.

 

It’s Houston- nobody cares about the Rockets. Even when Beerdo McFloppington was at the height of his powers and had the refs in his back pocket, nobody took them seriously. You have to go aaaaaallllll the way back to the Barkley, Clyde, Dream days to count them as relevant.

 

If the game was ONLY about offensive stats, he would be considered pretty good, until you looked at his contract.

 

If this turns out to be true, yet another reason for me to hold a no confidence vote in Jeanie.

 

Sucks at team basketball and taking blame like a pechalant child. Other than that, he's good at basketball. Sort of.

 

Decided to @LTLakerFan after every Cranjis tweet.

 

This is just a weird inference and an example of how data can be used to tell any story.

Max speed… like the highest speed you achieved on the court over a season? So if some useless player last year like Kent Bazemore turned on the after jets one time and hit a .1 higher speed he had a max speed higher than Westbrook. And this proves what exactly? That he isn’t the same athlete?

And the way they use the data is funny, they have Houston as the baseline - a season where his role and scheme were built on speed and Russ literally pushed the ball up like a mad man - and then two progressive declines where the pace, role and scheme were slower in Washington and much slower with Vogel last year.

It’s also odd that he has data from 2013 but doesn’t post the long term trend - it wouldn’t shock me if the full data showed a level similar to his time in Washington and wouldn’t then paint the picture of athletic decline so well.

From an athletic point of view, Russ drove on a high volume and was elite amongst guards in getting to the rim. He finished at 0-3ft from the rim at about 66% (from memory on NBA stats) which is good but about 10% below elite level (Luka).

Russ is similar to Lebron at the Cavs, he isn’t at his all time level of athleticism, but he is 85-90% there to the point where he is more athletic that pretty much anyone at his position.

Where Russ needs to improve ironically is his effort.