Russell Westbrick Discussion: Clipper Gonna Clip

Lebron was quite good on ball in stripping centers. But his transition D and close out as you said was abysmal.

I agree he got frustrated with Russ. But I think Russ and others on the team were quite frustrated with Lebron too for the way he played - he picked his spots and mainly got after it on offence. That’s not winning basketball. I’ve never personally seen Russ give so little effort and just go through the motions - to me that was the worst part of it all. He just kind of gave up…

 

They all gave up with the exception of the young guys. They realized pretty quickly that this experiment was doomed. Just a poorly fit roster with no hope of competing.

 

OT but this is why a) i'm not as jazzed about "adding shooting" as pretty much every poster here (most of the time, the shooters you can get can't do anything else), and b) i'm also not as jazzed as everyone else about swider, who's probably not even as good a shooter as ellington and is equally useless in all other ways.

give me a bunch of guys who can do everything but shoot, and i'll win more basketball games than i will with a bunch of guys who can only shoot. further, teams seem to do better when playing one non-shooting defensive specialist than they do when they play non-defense shooting specialists (which is why duncan robinson and davis bertans are considered some of the worst signings in recent years).

how does any of this pertain to russ? i honestly didn't care that he couldn't shoot when he came here. if he could have embraced defense, we could have become a top defensive team again and scored enough in transition to win a lot of games.

 

I trust no one unless they prove to be trustworthy. Most of the things we've been taught are fake and most things are fake. People just want to believe s*** is what it is no matter what.

 

but how does one prove to be trustworthy? what are things we're taught that are fake? is it really "most" of them? algebra? grammar? where does the fakery begin and why are those who are the fakers doing it? how do i know who's a faker?

my issue with the modern backlash at knowledge itself is that the proposed substitution for learning from others is my own personal vibes or somesuch, which is just an awful way to live. if we really believe that knowledge can only be obtained through internal rationality and all attempts to look outward for convergence are fraught with deceit, we might as well all jump off a cliff, tbh.

sorry, this touches a nerve as an educator. people come to me because i know things they don't and can help them know those things. having some rando say that's not true simply because they feel like it undermines human progress at a basic level.

again, sorry, i think the kyrie talk has my "flat earth" hackles raised way up.

 

So how exactly is that supposed to work when his primary role next season will be as a pit bull/Holiday like defender? Oh that's right, it won't. And if he thinks Ham wouldn't call him on his s*** in the film room, he's more delusional that I thought (not sure that's possible).

 

it's not. it's why he's been shopped to every team in the league and nobody has bitten yet.

i think i (and others) can be forgiven for hoping that he'd alter his game when he came over last year, but expecting it now is foolish. it ain't happening. maybe once he's bought out and finds he's only being offered backup roles, he'll decide to change. but more likely is that he'll just retire, imo. he wants things on his terms and has had a successful career doing that. it's just over now, and he'll be the last to accept it. it's clear that's what the agent was trying to say (though, again, i have questions about the agent and his statement).

 

Dude freakin sucks... and he stays. Prepare for a disaster of a season.

 

Would love to hear the kinds of answers they have to give Russ for him to think they will be the agency to get him to a team where he's "the face of the franchise". "Fake" ones probably.

https://www.forbes.com/companies/excel-sports-management/?sh=47d50bdb77a3

 

From Goon's article. Highlights just how detrimental Russ was.

https://www.ocregister.com/2022/07/19/lakers-cant-hide-the-strain-with-russell-westbrook/

 

i'm still a bit perplexed as to the irving price being a single pick. i feel like it would be done now if that were really the case. i think the nets are asking for two unprotected picks plus we take harris, just because they know it's the absolute most we can do, basically. sort of like how they just basically maxed out phx's assets in the asking price for durant, knowing there was no way it was happening.

 

I don’t buy that either. Fake reporting.

 

They’ll come round when they see Russ (all) bought in to helping the team win and Ham’s role for him here.

 

How the f*** is this guy going to be able to fit into Ham's offense? He would have to completely change as a player.
-Sets fewer picks so he can't be the roll guy. How do u play 4 out when Russ's shooting makes the defense ignore him on the perimeter. He doesn't push the pace. He is the opposite of Jrue Holiday on defense

I mean I guess it's been done in the past (Melo?, Jason Kidd?) but damn this seems very unlikely

 

melo played his late career role when he was in the olympics during his prime, so it wasn't just a fantasy. kidd turned himself into a very good standstill shooter and relinquished some control of the ball, but his style of play didn't change dramatically, imo.

it's hard to think of someone who has successfully changed in the ways we'd need russ to change (kidd was a decent guess, for sure).

i always wanted kobe to age like grant hill did after his injuries, and i think grant hill and vince carter are good examples of guys who adapted their style of play to aging and managed to contribute to winning teams as a result.

and all of this is offense. it's maybe even harder to think of an nba player who got more interested and effective on defense with age. wanting to defend is a skill. i remember my buddy in hs (who was the star sg) was always mystified that i liked playing defense. he was like "but WHY?!"

 

Wow, I'm gonna try and do a short version answer here for these because I could be here all day.

So, in business, if your people execute the job and don't get complaints, you have trustworthy people. You set the stage, they execute, boom.

Personal life, you hang with people long enough, you will be able to know if you have a keen sense of observation on whether you can trust them.

Media, public, almost everything is a lie due to marketing. They are trying to sell you something and it's usually embellished.

If you guys want, I can go into more detail on this on the podcast so it can make sense. If I get 20 likes on this post I will have Gerald make it a topic for us. It does correlate with the Lakers.

 

yeah, i firmly get that lots of people lie, but that's not an excuse to discount credentials or any knowledge that isn't obtained by direct experience or observation. it's just not possible to live effectively like that. i've found that most who claim this (not saying you) just arbitrarily choose to believe "sources" that say what they already think. sort of like your signature. but this isn't seeking the truth in any way, shape, or form.

and it is a bit laker/sports related, as we like some insider reporting and don't like other insider reporting, and it jives with what we want.

i would argue in my case that i rarely just jump to "that person is lying to me" and think instead about the likely source of their information and how that source would be using it (if at all).

 

Buha didn’t even really report any news. Sure there were a few tidbits of specific info (Russ getting his hand checked, pouting during video sessions when he was called out), but he was mostly just commenting on facts we already know.

For example, him saying that Russ threw Lebron, Vogel, etc under the bus wasn’t a report, it was Buha’s interpretation of Westbrook’s exit interview.

So it makes no sense to me to dismiss Buha’s criticisms of Russ as “fake news”. It wasn’t news to begin with.

 

Buha is some BS. Lakers insider...NOT.

 

LOL why?