Russell Westbrick Discussion: Clipper Gonna Clip

Finding at trading partner that both wants to dump enough money and deal with Russ is hard.

I actually think a Boston deal makes sense: they desperately need a distributor who can push the pace. I think a Russ for Horford/Marcus Smart would work.
Lakers get a solid shooting C to pair as Dwight insurance and he can play with AD. Smart takes over the Caruso role

 

1 3 pointer is all the more reason his FG% is completely inexcusable. 7-19 is terrible, you can call it what you want, 19 attempts is a lion's share.

 

The two Westbrook apologist should be in here defending him @ some point.

I wish you all well.

 

We shall most definitely see, who has the last word on the subject by June.

 

With the league going small, you need ball handlers who can be effective in distributing the ball and productive in transition, barring major injuries Westbrook will get at least 8 digits per year offers. He's limited and stubborn but still brings speed, athleticism and excellent guard play to the table.

Kudos to him for turning into a slasher yesterday in 4th Q ala Wade and playing off ball. I believe Monk found him underneath for a key basket.

If he keeps playing like he did last night and Lakers are in top 6 playoff position with a winning record I think Russ makes a sneaky case for All Star. He's been here since Day 1 especially when Lebron was gone he/AD kept the team afloat.

 

Copied thru the Westbrook section. LMAO Amick even calls him out with the terminology, "brain farts". :RW Barfbag: #lyingforRuss

NBA trade talk, Russell Westbrook’s awkward Lakers fit, the hurting Hawks and more: Sam Amick’s NBA notebook

Sam Amick 2h ago 84
Welcome to the NBA’s co-star reunion week.

Brooklyn’s Kyrie Irving makes his (non-vaccinated) season debut at Indiana on Wednesday night, with Kevin Durant and James Harden surely thrilled that he’s back in action. Golden State’s Klay Thompson is expected to return at home against Cleveland on Sunday when the Chase Center — along with Steph Curry and Draymond Green — will likely explode with enthusiasm after his two-plus-year injury absence. If the Denver Nuggets and the Clippers have their way with Jamal Murray and Kawhi Leonard, respectively, they’ll welcome them back at some point in the next few months and make life a whole lot easier for Nikola Jokic and Paul George in the process.

Meanwhile, in Lakers Land, where LeBron James and Anthony Davis spent the summer interviewing a variety of star players who they hoped would lighten their workload, it’s Russell Westbrook’s presence that has proven to be so problematic. It’s still an awkward fit between Westbrook and the Lakers, to say the least — especially with his massive salary slot ($44.2 million this season, $47 million player option for next season).

It was one thing when opposing team scouts (along with ESPN’s Tim Legler) were recommending he become the Lakers’ sixth man just five games in. But it’s been 39 games now, folks. And while Westbrook clearly passed the test back in late July, when he joined the likes of DeMar DeRozan and Damian Lillardin (essentially) interviewing for this job as the Lakers’ third star inside of James’ home, that has not been the case during this nine-game stretch in which Davis has been sidelined with an MCL sprain (and the Lakers have gone 4-5).

As one opposing team’s scout put it on Tuesday night when I theorized that Westbrook was partly brought to the Lakers for these times when one of their other two stars was out, “It’s only insurance if LeBron goes down. …You can’t have two balls for 48 minutes, (and) Russ is useless off the ball and too erratic with the ball.”

Except in their latest outing, of course.

Yes, Westbrook snapped his league-long streak of 407 consecutive games with at least one turnover in Tuesday night’s win over Sacramento and even registered a plus-17 mark (though he missed 12 of 19 shots). And yes, the Lakers (20-19, seventh in the West) have won four of their last five games.

But it’s James’ greatness (averaging 34.3 points, 9.8 rebounds, 5.9 assists in the past nine games) and the emergence of minimum-salary addition Malik Monksince he became a starter five games ago (20.8 points on 55.6 percent shooting overall and 45.9 percent from 3 on 7.4 attempts per game) that has kept them afloat without Davis. Just take a peek at the on-off splits during this Davis-less stretch.

• James (last nine games): plus-2.7 net rating on; minus-17.7 off (20.4 swing).
• Westbrook (last nine games): minus-0.5 on; minus-8.2 off (7.7 swing).
• And then there’s Monk, the former No. 11 pick out of Kentucky in 2017 whose story has — like his game — caught fire of late: plus-13 on; minus-1.9 (14.9 swing) during his five-game starting stretch.

All of which explains why sources say the Lakers showed some covert interest in discussing a possible Westbrook trade with rival executives earlier this season. A deal appears extremely unlikely before the Feb. 15 trade deadline, if only because his deal that was once seen by so many as untradeable is such a massive obstacle. But inside the Lakers, it seems, there is some recognition that this hasn’t gone as (James and Davis had) planned.

As always, Westbrook’s across-the-board production in these past nine games has been at a high level: averaging 19.9 points, 9.3 rebounds and 7.7 assists. But even with Tuesday’s outlier on the turnover front, his lack of ball control (5.1 per even after the Kings game; second in the league for the season at 4.6 per) and inefficient shooting (49.6 percent true shooting in that nine-game span) loom large for a Lakers team that is somehow, someway still fighting for playoff position as the halfway point of the season nears.

 

yikes.

that's pretty carefully worded. guessing they've called portland about lillard.

 

ROFL.

 

I love how all these "experts" like to ignore how many players we had out all season, but talk about other teams getting guys back. Meanwhile we are at the same 500 ball these other teams they talk about are at. It's like AD and Nunn are some scrubs or something.

 

I don’t see a scenario where we trade Russ during the season.

But I wonder if reuniting him with OKC this summer makes sense for both parties?

I think they’ll again have a lot of cap space, but not really an incentive to use it since they’re still in tank mode.

So maybe we throw in a future first to dump Russ into their cap space, hopefully get one or two assets that can contribute for us in return as well.

I’ve only roughly looked at the math, but at first glance I think something like Russ + future pick for Favors and some combination of Lu Dort, Kenrich Williams, or Mike Muscala could work.

They get the sentimental aspect of Russ returning which may energize their fanbase. Maybe he drags that young roster into being somewhat competitive and let’s then take the next step in their rebuild.

Meanwhile with the cap relief of Russ off the books, it may be more viable for us to throw the full MLE at Monk in hopes of retaining him, as navigating the hard cap may now be easier.

The problem there would be that would still leave us with very minimal assets to flesh out the roster. In any scenario, it seems we’re still going to be mostly left with having to convince guys to take the minimum.

 

Down for that.

 

The other problem is that Russ has an opt out and doesn't have to be down with any trade in the first place. It's going to be extremely hard to find some team willing to move 40 plus million in assets for a guy that doesn't want to play there.

 

so his threat is to opt out? don't throw me in that briar patch?

 

That's how he forced his way out of DC in the first place. They declined that trade at least twice before he went directly to the owner. This is why I don't see Russ being in on some trade back to OKC. He's already stated that he wanted to finish up his career in LA. Now a trade with the Clippers might be an option. Other than that, I don't see it happening. Well... unless some fool GM gives up 47 million in assets for a one year rental if he doesn't opt out.

 

I do not see him opting out. Who is going to pay Westbrook 25-30 mil per for another 3 years? Westbrook is not CP3. CP3 improves every team he is on by light years. And he's cerebral and effective.

Russell Westbrook is the Wilt Chamberlain of guards. Freakish athlete. Stats up the ying yang, no accountability after bad losses and performances. The only difference between the 2 is Wilt lucked out twice in 67 and 72 with the perfect teams to win it all. If you take away those two seasons, Wilt underachieved in at least 8 of his NBA seasons with the talent he had. Like Wilt, Westbrook is having a hard time not being the guy he wants to be all the time. He didnt have any turnovers yesterday because he forced himself to not make a bad play to show up. Problem there is, he still plays terrible team defense and makes terrible passes within the offense. When he went out last night towards the end when the Lakers made a run to finally extend the lead, he was on the bench. This happens alot.

Ultimately, the point of bringing Westbrook on was to cover for Lebron needing rest and not having to have him play so hard during the regular season. We all know that didn't work at the beginning of the year, Lebron went out for a while and the team stunk. And when Lebron came back, the team still stunk because Westbrook is bad for team ball. I just didnt know it would be this bad. I knew he would miss shots but I didnt see him making horrid pass after horrid pass, game in and game out like he has this year. And his defense might be worse than that. So, we have to eat the food we made now and deal with it or Westbrook cleans his crap up and the Lakers start winning games against title contenders. Lakers have not beat ONE FREAKIN TEAM in almost 3 months that is a title contender. That's really bad when you have Lebron, WB and AD on your team.

 

I don't see a deal (especially before the all star break) but plenty of bad contracts have been moved so I think a deal is possible just no clue who would take the bait.

 

for me with Russ, its not just the turnovers or missed shots its when he does it. I'm not as down on him as a lot of others but he's just gotta make better decisions, period.

 

If Carmelo can go from a burdensome veteran to a valuable role player today so can Russ.



It was a long road through, I believe Team USA turned him down and he didn't have any offers for nearly a year before the Blazers took a flier on him. Hopefully Russ doesn't go down that path

 

The best chance of trading him would be this offseason till the next trade deadline when he's a $47 million expiring contract. It would have to be with a team that wants to clear cap space and wants a PG.