AP Photo/Rick Scutteri
After ending the worst season of his NBA career, the knives come out for Los Angeles Lakers star Russell Westbrook.
It’s clear Westbrook’s best days are behind him, but Los Angeles Times’ Dan Woike painted a particularly unflattering portrait of the nine-time All-Star in terms of commercial value:
“When you send a player like Westbrook into a trade, it’s basically impossible to expect perfect fits in return. It is functional to trade one set of problems for another.
“For other teams, Westbrook presented a year-long problem on the books to erase long-term commitments to other players. Some scouts and executives in the league don’t see Westbrook as a useful player at this point, especially with a price tag approaching $50 million.”
Rating player efficiency isn’t the best way to assess a player’s performance, but it seems reasonable that Westbrook’s PER was spot on average (15.0) in 2021-22 according to Basketball Reference.
The 33-year-old had his moments last season, such as 33 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists in October’s win over the San Antonio Spurs.
But Westbrook continued his decline, averaging 18.5 points, 7.4 rebounds and 7.1 assists while shooting under 30 percent from three-point range for the fourth time in five seasons.
Speaking to reporters at the end of the Lakers season, he lamented that he couldn’t be his usual self in LA
Kyle Goon @kylegoon
When @DanWoikeSports mentions that throughout the year LeBron and AD said, “Let Russ be Russ” many times, Russell Westbrook immediately replies, “Yeah, but that wasn’t true. Let’s face it.”
Kyle Goon @kylegoon
Russell Westbrook said “top down” when he came to LA: I just felt like I was never given a fair chance to be who I needed to be to help this team.
And that’s true to an extent, as his 27.3 per cent usage rate was the lowest since 2009/10, his second season in the league.
The dilemma for the Lakers was that letting “Russ be Russ” probably wouldn’t have served the greater good. Los Angeles was better with him on the bench 2.4 points per 100 possession, per NBA.comand five of his six highest individual game scores came in defeats.
When Westbrook joined the Lakers, the thought was that he would be a mover for the team, especially if LeBron James or Anthony Davis needed to rest or take the occasional day off. In 2020-21, he helped lead the Washington Wizards to the playoffs.
Westbrook stock is now at its lowest point. He’s no longer a good No. 1 offensive option, and probably can’t be No. 2 on a team with post-season ambitions either.
Because he’s such a bad shot, Westbrook might not even be granted that late-career renaissance if he morphs into a seasoned specialist à la Vince Carter or even Jason Terry.
To say that Westbrook is no longer “useful” is a bit of a stretch given that he’s still capable of dropping a triple-double every night. Still, it’s hard to imagine that many competitors will line up to win it this summer.