Russell Westbrook SPICY post game interview

[EArl]

Now that Lebron has destroyed the Lakers, what team is he going to next?
Clippers?
Portland to play with Dame?
Brooklyn to join KD and IRving?

If winning a championship for us is called destroying a team, I think a lot of teams would want that.

[Tony15]

Fact is, dude was a horrid fit from the jump...and everyone except LBJ/Rob knew it. LeBron's having a great year individually, and as much as I respect/support the dude amongst his *** hurt haters on this board, it's a joke that he's getting little flack for the Lakers' current situation while Westbrook gets the Kwame Brown treatment.

[NyKnicks1714]

Came here to say I'm starting to feel bad for Westbrook, because unlike a lot of players in the league, he at least seems to show up motivated and ready to work

What does this even mean? Where is the work he's putting in on his shooting, or in the film room to work on his defensive assignments? Now maybe he's one of those first to come in, last to leave type of guys. I don't know, I'm not a Lakers practices, but there are no signs whatsoever that he's truly trying to work on his game.

And a few people have said it recently: he plays fast, not hard.

Russel Westbrook, regardless of what you think about him, or how effective he is, would play as many minutes as you could give him every single night... He's got that kind of motor... Which, be honest, only a very few players, especially star players seem to have anymore...
Now, he's able to do that partially because he takes defensive possessions easy... But at least you get effort...

If this is a redeeming quality then it's not a very good one. Playing fast and wanting to play as many minutes as possible doesn't really amount to effort, more like pseudo-effort from what I've seen from him. It gives the illusion of working hard when he has no interest in doing the actual hard work.

[Jazz9]

What does this even mean? Where is the work he's putting in on his shooting, or in the film room to work on his defensive assignments? Now maybe he's one of those first to come in, last to leave type of guys. I don't know, I'm not a Lakers practices, but there are no signs whatsoever that he's truly trying to work on his game.

And a few people have said it recently: he plays fast, not hard.

Russel Westbrook, regardless of what you think about him, or how effective he is, would play as many minutes as you could give him every single night... He's got that kind of motor... Which, be honest, only a very few players, especially star players seem to have anymore...
Now, he's able to do that partially because he takes defensive possessions easy... But at least you get effort...

If this is a redeeming quality then it's not a very good one. Playing fast and wanting to play as many minutes as possible doesn't really amount to effort, more like pseudo-effort from what I've seen from him. It gives the illusion of working hard when he has no interest in doing the actual hard work.

"He just running around, doing nothing"

[UcanUwill]

What does this even mean? Where is the work he's putting in on his shooting, or in the film room to work on his defensive assignments? Now maybe he's one of those first to come in, last to leave type of guys. I don't know, I'm not a Lakers practices, but there are no signs whatsoever that he's truly trying to work on his game.

And a few people have said it recently: he plays fast, not hard.

Russel Westbrook, regardless of what you think about him, or how effective he is, would play as many minutes as you could give him every single night... He's got that kind of motor... Which, be honest, only a very few players, especially star players seem to have anymore...
Now, he's able to do that partially because he takes defensive possessions easy... But at least you get effort...

If this is a redeeming quality then it's not a very good one. Playing fast and wanting to play as many minutes as possible doesn't really amount to effort, more like pseudo-effort from what I've seen from him. It gives the illusion of working hard when he has no interest in doing the actual hard work.

Yeah, we grasping for straws to compliment Westbrook now.

[Larry_Russell]

Now that Lebron has destroyed the Lakers, what team is he going to next?
Clippers?
Portland to play with Dame?
Brooklyn to join KD and IRving?

If winning a championship for us is called destroying a team, I think a lot of teams would want that.

he broke up the team that won.

[cdubbz]

What can the Lakers really do! they would be 100% lock for playoffs with kuzma, trezz, and KCP.

[BallerTalk]

I feel a great sense of schadenfreude seeing the tampering Lakers implode like this.

Interesting word choice because Westbrook seems to be experiencing his own little bit of schadenfreude in this clip:

Read on Twitter

You have to hope that's just his ego overcompensating to hide the hurt and not him actually reveling in the fact his team lost with him on the bench.

[NyKnicks1714]

I feel a great sense of schadenfreude seeing the tampering Lakers implode like this.

Interesting word choice because Westbrook seems to be experiencing his own little bit of schadenfreude in this clip:

Read on Twitter

You have to hope that's just his ego overcompensating to hide the hurt and not him actually reveling in the fact his team lost with him on the bench.

I've been relentless in criticizing Westbrook, and he deserves it IMO, but let's be honest: it's completely natural to be a little happy when your team doesn't succeed when you're being benched...however, that's not what is happening at all. It's like Westbrook is trying to force that narrative.

[Buckeye-NBAFan]

He’s sounding very Iverson & Melo-esque.

Said it before, but I don’t think he’ll last one more full season after this contract is up.

He strikes me as a guy who will only do things on his terms.

It’s very hard to coach high volume scorers who no longer in their primes.

Problem is there are guys like Melo who can still contribute if they figure out their role, but that's because Melo still has an above average skillet, shooting. Even if Westbrook gets his head straight, he doesn't have anything he's above average at any more. A bench role is best case for someone like that.

[mccluskey]

Came here to say I'm starting to feel bad for Westbrook, because unlike a lot of players in the league, he at least seems to show up motivated and ready to work

What does this even mean? Where is the work he's putting in on his shooting, or in the film room to work on his defensive assignments? Now maybe he's one of those first to come in, last to leave type of guys. I don't know, I'm not a Lakers practices, but there are no signs whatsoever that he's truly trying to work on his game.

And a few people have said it recently: he plays fast, not hard.

Russel Westbrook, regardless of what you think about him, or how effective he is, would play as many minutes as you could give him every single night... He's got that kind of motor... Which, be honest, only a very few players, especially star players seem to have anymore...
Now, he's able to do that partially because he takes defensive possessions easy... But at least you get effort...

And let's also not lie about him... He can, on any given night, get you 20/10/10... Still... His defensive assignment may drop 40 on him, but if you have the right mix of players, who can mask his defensive liabilities, maybe that's not an issue on your team...

The problem with the Lakers, is LeBron is also taking most of the night off on Defense, and AD picks and chooses his battles at this point...

You got a point though about the film room... Westbrook hasn't really improved anything from opening night... He just keeps playing the exact same way, and making the exact same mistakes... Worst of all being the fact that he just can't seem to get the ball to AD or LeBron in situations where they might be effective...

Rondo was basically useless on D until the playoffs, but he could come in and orchestrate the offense and get the ball to AD and LeBron in great spots...

I agree with you that WB has a high motor offensively, but defensively the guy stands around watching the ball and letting his man go past him most of the time.

and like you said there towards the end of your post, he's completely unwilling to adapt his game to fit the Lakers' needs and just makes the same mistakes over and over and over again. Sure, he can still get the occasional triple double or big performance, but it requires putting the ball in his hands all game long and passing up looks for better and more efficient players, which is not a winning strategy for LA.

so you got a guy who thinks he's still a superstar and should be on the court all the time but is a net negative for the team and plays at a below average level. And instead of showing some veteran leadership and accepting responsibility for improving himself, he gets mad at the coaching staff about not getting to play in crunchtime.

being an NBA head coach has got to be one of the most frustrating jobs in the world, those guys don't get paid enough for all the crap they have to deal with

[Madhouse]

Westbrook just can't accept that his body broke down and can't do the things he once could.

[theoilslick]

Westbrook post-Durant was never as playoff successful.

2016-17 with OKC and no co-superstar lost R1, G5.
2017-18 with OKC and Paul George lost R1, G6.
2018-19 with OKC and Paul George lost R1, G5.
2019-20 with HOU and Harden lost R2, G5.
2020-21 with WAS and Bradley Beal lost R1, G5.

Westbrook’s career is pretty much becoming the Fallout game series.

Westbrook: War…War never changes.
Kid fan: Mmkay…can I get your autograph on my towel Mr. Westbrook?

[sp6r=underrated]

Now that Lebron has destroyed the Lakers, what team is he going to next?
Clippers?
Portland to play with Dame?
Brooklyn to join KD and IRving?

If winning a championship for us is called destroying a team, I think a lot of teams would want that.

Yup, even if you give the most negative critique possible of Lebron's LA tenure. Give him 100% of the blame for being a terrible player GM who forced the team into dumb moves that set up a long rebuild.

He still gave them that 1 season of legit title contention that resulting in a title. That isn't destroying a franchise.

[VanWest82]

Russ deserves criticism for his play and the way he's handled this situation but it's revealing that he seems to be the only one getting criticized here.

Per 100

Russ w Lebron: 20.4/9.9/10.0 on 48% TS
Russ no Lebron: 28.6/11.1/10.5 on 52% TS
Russ w Wizards: 28.1/14.6/14.9 on 50% TS

For the most part he's been the same player but the fit just isn't there with Bron. Is that all on Russ? It's not like he's the only star who's had fit issues with Bron.

[sp6r=underrated]

Westbrook just can't accept that his body broke down and can't do the things he once could.

This is true but a lot of on-ball, high scoring guards had similar ends to their career.

You don't even need a long term memory to come up with an example. Kobe, may he rest in peace, was a trainwreck for the final 3 years of his career because he couldn't make the adjustment.

[HiRez]

The Lakers may be better without Westbrook, but that still doesn't mean they're good.

[Bornstellar]

This entire season is Westbrook refusing to acknowledge his shortcomings and rework his game to fit a team in his latter years. Pretty sad to watch. He's Carmelo 2.0 but at least Carmelo could still shoot

[lamscott]

Man... This is like the Melo dumpster fire when he thought he was good too. Did you guys see Westbrook's TO's ? Egregious is an udnerstament.

Lakers came back with him on the bench too.

[LAL1947]

Fact is, dude was a horrid fit from the jump...and everyone except LBJ/Rob knew it. LeBron's having a great year individually, and as much as I respect/support the dude amongst his *** hurt haters on this board, it's a joke that he's getting little flack for the Lakers' current situation while Westbrook gets the Kwame Brown treatment.

Well, why do you think Westbrook is getting the Kwame Brown treatment in the media?

Surely, it can't be that Lebron has friends in the media who want to distract from the fact that LeGM asked for Westbrook's signing and gutted the team's depth?