In the summer of 2021, the Los Angeles Lakers struck a trade with the Washington Wizards for guard Russell Westbrook in hopes that he would help them re-emerge as legitimate title contenders.
However, the guard spent less than two full seasons with Los Angeles before the team ended the experiment and shipped him to the Utah Jazz.
According to a report from The Athletic’s Jovan Buha, there’s been a blend of “accountability” and “finger-pointing” among folks in the Lakers organization regarding the original Westbrook trade.
“My understanding is yes, I think there’s been accountability for the Russ trade,” Buha said. “I also think there’s been some finger-pointing from all sides. There’s several parties involved, several parties to blame. Obviously, the stars were involved with it, but the front office and ownership ultimately signed off on it and executed the trade. I think there’s a lot of blame to go around for the Russ situation, and I think everyone’s done a combination of taking accountability, but also finger-pointing.”
Westbrook proved to be quite a clunky fit alongside stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis in Los Angeles, and his numbers with the Lakers fortify that sentiment. The nine-time All-Star averaged a triple-double with the Wizards the season before he joined the Lakers, yet he averaged 18.5 points, 7.4 rebounds and 7.1 assists per game in his only full season with the Purple and Gold.
Plus, instead of the Lakers taking a step forward from the season prior with Westbrook in the fold, they did the exact opposite. Los Angeles missed the playoffs in its only full season with the veteran, as the team won just 33 of its 82 games during the 2021-22 regular season.
Following Westbrook’s underwhelming first season as a Laker, former head coach Darvin Ham (a new hire) experimented with playing the guard in a bench role in the 2022-23 campaign. He came off the bench in 49 of the 52 games he played with Los Angeles that season and averaged 15.9 points, 6.2 rebounds and 7.5 assists per contest across those 52 appearances.
But the Lakers were still struggling as a team, so they decided to move on from him ahead of the trade deadline.
Interestingly, after Westbrook got traded, the Lakers rallied to finish the regular season and made the playoffs as the No. 7 seed by surviving the play-in tournament. Then, Los Angeles defied the odds in the 2023 NBA Playoffs. The team won each of its first two playoff series and reached the Western Conference Finals, where it fell to the Denver Nuggets in a sweep.
