Official RUSSELL WESTBROOK Thread (Traded to Utah)

[wolfpaclaker]

I like how we purposely waited until the moment he was gone to trash him. Typical stuff from our franchise. Westbrook was the same with Vogel, and we supported Westbrook over the championship coach. Hell, we had Jeanie say he was the Lakers best player at one point (LOL).

Westbrook was a problem the moment we traded for him because gave up too many quality players and that WB needed to play a Center role where Lebron/AD play off him as jumpshooters. They all said they would, but the moment it came to really doing it AD's jumpshot was MIA, and Lebron wanted the ball a lot more than he should have. The blame in this is all around. The largest share should go to the FO though.

So then they bring in a coach in large part to get WB to respect/do as he wishes, and WB actually does. He came off the bench and he actually had a lot of support from the fans at Staples this year. It wasn't WB's fault that the team wasn't good this year so far, certainly not so far.

Look, I'm no fan, and I wanted him gone since last trade deadline. But all these excuses are so convenient for those in the FO. Oh, it was the coach last year. Oh, it was WB's toxic personality this year. As if it's WB's fault that there was a mid-game celebration to a game where the Lakers lost, so that Lebron could get past the scoring record.

I feel the reality may hit the Lakers soon. It served the coaching staff who have underperformed this year a great deal to put WB as the scapegoat. By all accounts, Ham and WB seemed to have respect and WB listened to Ham. As for Handy, he gets into it with many players, included Lebron last year. Yet suddenly WB toxic personality is why we're 13th? LOL. Youtube Handy/Lebron halftime argument.

[Halflife]

[levon]

Uh, there was a report last year that Westbrook would react adversely anytime Vogel called him out in film session. There's a video of him saying he doesn't watch film. There are multiple spats he gets into with reporters anytime anyone lobs him a softball question that slightly offends him.

As far as a basketball player coming off the bench for the betterment of his team and listening to his coach...well, great? Does he deserve extra credit for doing his job? He's paid 47 million dollars a year and rates as an average to bad bench player. That's the reality. Thank you so much Russ for coming off the bench and not just staying home, while still playing 29 minutes a game and closing most games, most of which he shouldn't have closed. Holding this guy to a standard where that's seen as some kind of sacrifice is frankly patronizing to him.

It's not a hit piece to detail what happened in the locker room on Tuesday. The Lakers have publicly supported Russ. They conducted the whole coaching process to make sure they selected a coach that could utilize him best. They designed lineups just for him. There were reports that rival teams were confused as to why the team personnel was optimized for Westbrook instead of James. They went well out of their way to make it work. Arguably it took way too long and tanked this season.

He's not dead. He's going to retire a hall-of-famer with a quarter billion at the least in his bank account. Forgive us if fans and Lakers sources want to finally blow off some steam after the albatross is gone.

[strong9]

You can both be right. Coaching has beem miserable, but WB is equally toxic.

[CervantesRises]

How can anyone defend a guy who routinely kills momentum, via TO, brick, early shot, and/or utter lack of defense?

How can anyone defend a guy when his attitude was so unaccountable and he lashes out when anyone tries to introduce him to reality?

How can anyone defend a guy who has blooper reals for a single season longer than 15 minutes!

How can anyone defend a guy guilty of all of this and who takes it upon himself to make it about him on a historic night AND when he's making FAR more money than his contributions to the team warrants?

If Russ wasn't the BIGGEST problem on the team than what is?

Ham's inexperience? Ok explain Vogel.

Pelinka's roster construction? Ok Russ is why the roster construction sucked.

Bron or AD? Ok...they got a ring together...what's Russ got besides more trades for a supposed superstar than anyone I can think of.

Yes Bron, AD and Pelinka F'd up by bringing this turd in.

But that doesn't make him any less of a turd.

Name ONE player Russ made better in his time here.

Name ONE game where you thought to yourself, 'Man. I'm so glad we got this guy.'

Name ONE time you thought, 'this is going to work.'

Yes there's a lot of blame to go around for bringing him in...but on the court...Russ was THE problem.

Wolf...I would have rather the Lakers paid you 47 Million...you would have been just as effective and with a much better representation of what it means to wear the Purple and Gold Armour.

That's my final comment.
_________________
"If You're Afraid To Fail...Then You're Probably Going To Fail."
- Kobe

#BannersOverBillboards

[TooMuchMajicBuss]

Good riddance to the Westbrook era. Never had I hated watching a Laker team play before, but I did since that miserable summer that brought WB here in trade for for the oh so minor cost of our stifling defense and title contention.

Best of luck to all the new Lakers!

And best of luck to one returning Laker too.

[ingle]

Thanks Russ for playing hard for his entire stint here and bringing grade-A comedy to Laker games.

We weren't going to win a title anyway and Russ at least entertained us.

[george w kush]

[TooMuchMajicBuss]

^yup. Gotta agree

[Lakesh0wtime]

Best of luck Brodie.

Was one of my favorite players in the league before he got to us. He just wasn’t a good fit with Lebron and Ad.

I wish him and his family the best. I actually ran into them in Maui last summer.

[Nonamehero]

[Lakesh0wtime]

[babyskyhook]

[pio2u]

[27]

My respect for Russ went up a notch when he finally came off the bench but his play was the same. How is he not killing other benches? I do not think we misused him and if other teams really think they can do better with him -- all the power to them.

Paul George out here reaching out to russ....music to my ears.

[27]

My respect for Russ went up a notch when he finally came off the bench but his play was the same. How is he not killing other benches? I do not think we misused him and if other teams really think they can do better with him -- all the power to them.

Paul George out here reaching out to russ....music to my ears.

[petergr]

Won’t be surprised to see him fade out really quick. Do the Clippers really want him

[Hanging from Rafters]

[lakersfan8]

Other than his playing style, inconsistency is also one of his major problems. He might make some good plays but he would also make some terrible mistakes. You don't really want that if you want to play winning basketball.

[CervantesRises]

[CervantesRises]

[Lakesh0wtime]

[Lakesh0wtime]

It’s one thing to dislike a player because of his play.

But people here really getting mad when you say best of luck to someone and his family.

You can dislike someone’s play on your team but also hoping for the best for them when they leave the team.

FOH with your hatin feelings LOL.

This crap is not that deep.

[1995Lakers]

The fellas defending Westbrook from his play in the past: I dont blame you. This is an MVP we are talking about and his boneheaded plays were always there - will never forget in game 2 2012 when he got lost ball-watching and let Steve Blake get that wide open three to steal that game. Yet despite these gut wrenching mistakes, the Thunder consistently finished with 55+ wins. Lets also not forget when we matched up with them twice in 2010 and 2012, the biggest problem was not Kevin Durant. It was Russell Westbrook to the point Kobe had to switch onto him in 2010 and in 2012, he made Ramon Sessions his personal b**** to the point that it made the Fisher to Sessions regular season upgrade absolutely irrelevant in the playoffs

[Nonamehero]