Getty LeBron James chose Russell Westbrook over DeMar DeRozan because he wanted an "alpha."
The Los Angeles Lakers made the biggest move of the offseason because LeBron James wanted an “alpha.”
According to Ric Bucher during the latest episode of his “On The Ball” podcast, Bucher explains why the Lakers opted to acquire Russell Westbrook over DeMar DeRozan — who has emerged as an MVP candidate during his first season with the Chicago Bulls.
“Because LeBron wanted an alpha to help him carry the load and kick AD in the a**,” says Bucher. “And he didn’t see that in DeRozan. The same DeRozan he routinely dispatched when they were both in the Eastern Conference. Remember how they called Toronto, ‘LeBronto,’ because of the way he cruised past them in the playoffs? DeRozan was on the other end of that. And that is why he chose Russ over DeRozan.”
DeRozan Likely Better Fit Than Westbrook on Lakers
Bucher is referencing the fact that James’ old Cleveland Cavaliers squad used to eliminate DeRozan’s Toronto Raptors teams from the playoffs on an annual basis. In fact, the Cavaliers did just that in three consecutive years from 2016 until 2018, sweeping them during the 2017 and 2018 postseasons.
While that may have been the case while on opposite teams, one could easily make the argument that DeRozan would have fit better on this Lakers squad as a complementary player to James and Anthony Davis, rather than the ball-dominant Westbrook.
DeRozan is one of the top mid-range shooters in the game, shooting .500 percent from the field while averaging 26.8 points per game this season for the 19-10 Bulls — who rank second in the Eastern Conference.
Meanwhile, the Lakers are vastly struggling with Westbrook in the fold. Los Angeles dropped their third consecutive game versus the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday, December 21. That’s not even mentioning the Lakers’ recent loss to the DeRozan-led Bulls on Sunday, with DeRozan scoring a game-high 38 points.
The Lakers are now 16-16, which is the first time a defending NBA champion is .500 or worse more than 20 games in a season, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
Considering the Lakers won a championship with a James-Davis-led duo surrounded by role players, the team didn’t exactly need a third mega star to win another championship.
They just needed a better complementary player alongside them — which DeRozan would have likely been compared to Westbrook.
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Pelinka Explains Westbrook Acquisition
As far as Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka’s explanation for why the team acquired Westbrook, it was due to lessening the workload of the soon-to-be 37-year-old James.
James — who is in the midst of his 19th season — has had a lot of wear-and-tear through 1,330 regular season and 266 postseason games.
Pelinka explained the move during a recent episode of Spectrum Sportsnet’s “Backstage Lakers.”
“I think in kind of building the roster in the offseason, obviously we made a big trade for Russell Westbrook to get another playmaker… We knew that as LeBron journeyed towards Year 19 in the league and then Year 20, we couldn’t rely on him as the sole engine for our team, so we made that trade really wanting to dimensionalize the roster with a combination of versatility, guys that could shoot and also defenders,” said Pelinka.
“The way this season started, with Talen being out for a couple months, we still haven’t had Trevor Ariza play (Pelinka said this before Ariza made his debut versus the Bulls) and Kendrick Nunn hasn’t played in a game yet… Those were all players that we saw in our top eight, and so getting them healthy and back will really I think be critical in us being able analyze how the puzzle fits together once we have the whole team,” continued Pelinka.
While it’s true the Lakers haven’t had all of their pieces for a single game this season, it’s clear they have bigger issues than just their lack of chemistry. Los Angeles’ goal was to lean less heavily on a 37-year-old James this year.
However, the effect of acquiring Westbrook — who is due to earn more than $44 million this season — resulted in the Lakers signing a bunch of older players on bargain contracts to fill out the roster. That includes the likes of the 37-year-old Carmelo Anthony, 36-year-old Dwight Howard, 35-year-old Rajon Rondo, 34-year-old Wayne Ellington, 32-year-old Kent Bazemore and 31-year-old Avery Bradley — all of whom are key members of the rotation.
The Lakers have much bigger problems to worry about than just their injuries — it’s their roster construction in general.