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As the NBA summer has worn on, the Lakers get less and less likely to take the easy path when it comes to ridding themselves of one of their biggest headaches from last season: point guard Russell Westbrook, who struggled on both ends of the floor and was not able to seamlessly fit in with star forward LeBron James.
Efforts to move Westbrook by attaching a draft pick have failed, and a potential deal to get Buddy Hield and Myles Turner from the Pacers for Westbrook fell apart because the Lakers would include only one future first-rounder, not two. Other teams linked to Westbrook and his expiring $47 million contract have seemingly moved on, too, like Charlotte and New York.
There are still possibilities—the Knicks could come back into the picture and the Jazz could be willing to take him on—but the Lakers’ refusal to add anything more than one first-round pick to a Westbrook deal keeps halting any progress.
For some in the Lakers organization, and maybe for the most important addition the team has made this offseason, that is not a bad thing.
Darvin Ham Could Use Westbrook Better
The important addition, of course, is coach Darvin Ham, who was hired to replace the fired Frank Vogel. Many within the Lakers, and Ham himself, would like L.A. to keep Westbrook on board, the impression being that Westbrook’s fractured relationship with Vogel was the real problem last year and not, you know, his shoddy defense or wild shot selection.
Heavy Sports NBA insider Steve Bulpett noted as much in a recent video chat. Westbrook may be going nowhere for the Lakers, and that’s because of Ham. Said Bulpett:
Necessity is the mother of staying together in this case. There is some of that. I think there are also, from what I’ve heard, elements within the Lakers that really want to give Darvin Ham a shot at (using Westbrook). … He’s a different kind of dude. He is not going to put up with the weirdness we have seen in L.A., with that organization. He is the kind of guy who will get through to players.
As they’ve seen Darvin approach the job, attack the job, they’ve liked it more and more. If they had options with Russell Westbrook, I am sure they’d move him. But as the days have gone on and the options are not there, the idea of maybe, you look in your closet and there is not a lot there, maybe I will wear that suit.
NBA Coach: Ham Is ‘Old School’
And there is some logic in Ham’s reasoning around Westbrook. His numbers last season were not out of line with anything he’s done recently in his career, with averages of 18.5 points, 7.1 assists and 7.4 rebounds. He struggled to shoot from the perimeter, making 29.8% of his 3-pointers, but shot 44.4% overall, slightly above his 43.8% career percentage.
In other words, the Lakers got from Westbrook exactly what they should have expected. He also played 78 games for a team that was miserable for most of the year.
Ham might be the right guy to get the best from Westbrook.
“He’s a really grounded guy,” one coach told Bulpett earlier this month. “There’s a lot of old school in him, but he understands how the game has changed over the years and what you need to do to deal with it and succeed — that’s from how the game is played to just the players themselves and what they’re dealing with. I think Darvin will do it his way, his own way. He’s an interesting guy.”
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