Vogel benched Westbrook: "Playing the guys that I thought were going to win the game”

[TwoStarz]

Vogel you remove one cancer but kept one in?

Carmelo Anthony has no business closing games. This guys IQ or lackthereof has been on full display since his decline started.

Anyone remember when he literally left Levert (who had the damn ball in his hands) to go look for a switch? He was a headless chicken that resulted in back to back threes from the Pacers. First Sabonis then Levert. Oh, not mention the constant targeting on defense for the whole stretch run.

Carmelo sucks, and he has for years. I don't know how this guy is still in the NBA, his only saving grace is that he can shoot. I'd never want this guy to be on my team.

Close the game with 3 shooters (That arent a complete liability on the defensive side), lebron, dwight and I guarantee they win that game.

[Flash4thewin]

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This is pretty interesting

The better question is why did it take this long for the Lakers MGT to bless this move?

[JN61]

Vogel you remove one cancer but kept one in?

Carmelo Anthony has no business closing games. This guys IQ or lackthereof has been on full display since his decline started.

Anyone remember when he literally left Levert (who had the damn ball in his hands) to go look for a switch? He was a headless chicken that resulted in back to back threes from the Pacers. First Sabonis then Levert. Oh, not mention the constant targeting on defense for the whole stretch run.

Carmelo sucks, and he has for years. I don't know how this guy is still in the NBA, his only saving grace is that he can shoot. I'd never want this guy to be on my team.

Close the game with 3 shooters (That arent a complete liability on the defensive side), lebron, dwight and I guarantee they win that game.

If you think LeBron isn't complete liability on defensive end, especially when games comes down to last few minutes, I have bad news for you.

[Pharmcat]

Lakers should just cut him .

[TwoStarz]

Vogel you remove one cancer but kept one in?

Carmelo Anthony has no business closing games. This guys IQ or lackthereof has been on full display since his decline started.

Anyone remember when he literally left Levert (who had the damn ball in his hands) to go look for a switch? He was a headless chicken that resulted in back to back threes from the Pacers. First Sabonis then Levert. Oh, not mention the constant targeting on defense for the whole stretch run.

Carmelo sucks, and he has for years. I don't know how this guy is still in the NBA, his only saving grace is that he can shoot. I'd never want this guy to be on my team.

Close the game with 3 shooters (That arent a complete liability on the defensive side), lebron, dwight and I guarantee they win that game.

If you think LeBron isn't complete liability on defensive end, especially when games comes down to last few minutes, I have bad news for you.

I think I trust Lebrons IQ on the defensive end more than anyones on that team, sans maybe Dwight. But yes, you keep telling us how bad his defense is when he doesn't WANT to play it because that is totally comparable to a guy trying to play it, but just completely incapable due to their tiny brains like your guy Westbrook and Carmelo.

[Ballerhogger]

Vogel you remove one cancer but kept one in?

Carmelo Anthony has no business closing games. This guys IQ or lackthereof has been on full display since his decline started.

Anyone remember when he literally left Levert (who had the damn ball in his hands) to go look for a switch? He was a headless chicken that resulted in back to back threes from the Pacers. First Sabonis then Levert. Oh, not mention the constant targeting on defense for the whole stretch run.

Carmelo sucks, and he has for years. I don't know how this guy is still in the NBA, his only saving grace is that he can shoot. I'd never want this guy to be on my team.

Close the game with 3 shooters (That arent a complete liability on the defensive side), lebron, dwight and I guarantee they win that game.

Why wasn’t Stanley or Dwight out there??

[dhsilv2]

But he dunked a Gobert and I was told he was one of the best guards in the game still...how can stats and coaches be right when he dunked on gobert, after grabbing his shoulder to lift him up!

[cupcakesnake]

i've grown a little sick of all the WB hate, despite being a career-long WB hater. I enjoyed the beginning of his fall from grace like only a hater can, but it's gotten a bit absurd. I've eaten all the Russ hate I can handle and my stomach is bloated from the junk food he keeps feeding us.

But maybe one more handful couldn't hurt... why shouldn't I have another bite:
There has just never ever been, not even in the trash early 2000s chucker era, been a guy with so little shot making and decision making ability been given such a green light. How has every coach (until Vogel last night, hail our new god-emperor Frank!) just been completely fine to let Westbrook do whatever he wants. There is no historical comparison here, we're off the edge of the map. A career 30% 3-point shooter who is allowed to take pull-up threes, early in the shot clock, in crunch time. It was annoying back when he looked off KD to do it... but now it's just a cartoon show. He plays basketball like he's Spongebob Squarepants.

[Tracymcgoaty]

but benching russ didnt produce a winning result lol

Got a revelation for you. No one’s saying the Lakers are going to be contenders without Russ. All we’re saying is that they’ll suck less.

He should have benched Melo as well. We would have won.

Both Russ and Melo are net negative players.

[Mamba Mentality]

Talk your **** Vogel, I'm here for it. Imagine getting thrown a $44 million player who is impossible to win with and then being on the verge of becoming the scapegoat for bad moves. This man put together the #1 defense in the league, but the Lakers incompetent FO (with the help of Lebron) got rid of all our size and replaced every perimeter defender for washed legs. KCP, AC, and Kuz should still be Lakers. It's a damn shame that Vogel is gonna have to take the fall.

[JN61]

Vogel you remove one cancer but kept one in?

Carmelo Anthony has no business closing games. This guys IQ or lackthereof has been on full display since his decline started.

Anyone remember when he literally left Levert (who had the damn ball in his hands) to go look for a switch? He was a headless chicken that resulted in back to back threes from the Pacers. First Sabonis then Levert. Oh, not mention the constant targeting on defense for the whole stretch run.

Carmelo sucks, and he has for years. I don't know how this guy is still in the NBA, his only saving grace is that he can shoot. I'd never want this guy to be on my team.

Close the game with 3 shooters (That arent a complete liability on the defensive side), lebron, dwight and I guarantee they win that game.

If you think LeBron isn't complete liability on defensive end, especially when games comes down to last few minutes, I have bad news for you.

I think I trust Lebrons IQ on the defensive end more than anyones on that team, sans maybe Dwight. But yes, you keep telling us how bad his defense is when he doesn't WANT to play it because that is totally comparable to a guy trying to play it, but just completely incapable due to their tiny brains like your guy Westbrook and Carmelo.

Which is perfectly portraited by the defensive stats. Carmelo, while has been historically speaking bad defender is actually trying to defend. Same with Westbrook (he has several games this year where he stopped opponent's best player. Like George), they both try. Lebron doesn't. This is reflected in their defensive rating which for Lebron is worse than these 2 players; 112.4 vs 109 and 109.

If we expand this to clutch time, where the game matters the most and players must be the most locked in on the last 5 minutes of the game on +/-5pts of 5 minutes of the game Lebron posts horrific 118.2 DEFRTG, Carmelo at 108 and Westbrook at 108.6. 4th quarter for this year Lebron is posting 117.1 DEFRTG this year and if they are up more than 10 points he basically doesn't play defense at all and has almost 121 rating allowing easy comebacks for other teams. Only time Lebron has been having ok numbers was when he was hidden behind Davis earlier this year.

When Lebron played the center the numbers are even worse; last 5 games he is posting 124.2 DEFRTG. Last 10; 113.6. Last 15; 118. He basically can't play center at all he wanted to play. He is total layup line for opponent or opponent spreads the floor and gets 3-4 wide open 3 pointers per game which he doesn't even bother to contest.

[The4thHorseman]

He secured the win against Utah and now was benched and they lost. Not surprised really.

Vogel took Russ out with about 4mins left in the 3rd and didn't put him back in until about 4mins left in the game against Utah.

[Mamba Mentality]

He secured the win against Utah and now was benched and they lost. Not surprised really.

Oh you mean drove down the length of court and fired up a shot early in the shot clock when we were already up 5 with 40 seconds to go. Oh yeh, definitely secured it.

[Heat_team02]

[TwoStarz]

Vogel you remove one cancer but kept one in?

Carmelo Anthony has no business closing games. This guys IQ or lackthereof has been on full display since his decline started.

Anyone remember when he literally left Levert (who had the damn ball in his hands) to go look for a switch? He was a headless chicken that resulted in back to back threes from the Pacers. First Sabonis then Levert. Oh, not mention the constant targeting on defense for the whole stretch run.

Carmelo sucks, and he has for years. I don't know how this guy is still in the NBA, his only saving grace is that he can shoot. I'd never want this guy to be on my team.

Close the game with 3 shooters (That arent a complete liability on the defensive side), lebron, dwight and I guarantee they win that game.

Why wasn’t Stanley or Dwight out there??

Good question

[Ballerhogger]

but benching russ didnt produce a winning result lol

Got a revelation for you. No one’s saying the Lakers are going to be contenders without Russ. All we’re saying is that they’ll suck less.

He should have benched Melo as well. We would have won.

Both Russ and Melo are net negative players.

melo is pretty much useless he gave the pacers 4 point play with his dumb ass tec.

[whatisacenter]

so LeGM gave Vogel the greenlight to bench Russ and then skipped out after the game to got to the movies???

[Duffman100]

i've grown a little sick of all the WB hate, despite being a career-long WB hater. I enjoyed the beginning of his fall from grace like only a hater can, but it's gotten a bit absurd. I've eaten all the Russ hate I can handle and my stomach is bloated from the junk food he keeps feeding us.

But maybe one more handful couldn't hurt... why shouldn't I have another bite:
There has just never ever been, not even in the trash early 2000s chucker era, been a guy with so little shot making and decision making ability been given such a green light. How has every coach (until Vogel last night, hail our new god-emperor Frank!) just been completely fine to let Westbrook do whatever he wants. There is no historical comparison here, we're off the edge of the map. A career 30% 3-point shooter who is allowed to take pull-up threes, early in the shot clock, in crunch time. It was annoying back when he looked off KD to do it... but now it's just a cartoon show. He plays basketball like he's Spongebob Squarepants.

I mean there are two scenarios,

Either he's not been told to reign it in OR he has been told to reign it in and refuses.

Either situation is alarming for different reasons.

[zshawn10]

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[MagicBagley18]

Russ hasn't ever demanded a trade in his whole career, he left every stop amicably.

Close.

You're wrong about never requesting a trade, he has actually asked for a trade at least twice (Houston, Washington).

You're right about the amicable part as both teams were more than happy to move on from the Westbrook experience.

Close.

You're wrong about demanding a trade out of Houston and Washington.

In Houston part of the agreement in Russ joining the team was that if it blew up they would help him find a decent spot to move onto. Harden already after the bubble started poking holes in the ship and even though that wasn't all public yet when they traded WB they were more or less just fulfilling their side of the deal to help him land in a spot he was comforable in after the train started to wreck.

In Washington I honestly feel management was annoyed at Russ because even though the last month and a half fo the year were amazing and he got them into the playoffs the owners proabbly would have preffered a full tank strategy. Anyways the Lakers called them and Russ was happy to have a palce that wanted him and Washingotn was happy to move an asset that did play great for them but wasn't part of the long term plan.

You're right about the part I was already right about.

As a side note not only has Russ never demanded a trade he's also never gone out of his way to get a coach fired. Plays hard, supports his teammates, doesn't cause trouble... yet the audience hates him? Who knows?

If Washington owners were mad at him because they wanted to tank- why didn’t they completely bottom out the roster and actually try to tank this year. Why not trade beal if that’s the case? why be aggressively pursuing players like grant now after their hot start?
That just doesn’t add up.

Russ asked for a trade because he felt the wizards weren’t good enough and he knew LA was an option