Lakers want Russell Westbrook demoted to bench but so far Frank Vogel has resisted, per report

The Los Angeles Lakers are desperate for any kind of spark. Yes, they got a win over the Warriors on Saturday thanks to 56 points from LeBron James, but prior to that they'd lost four straight and 11 of their last 14.

Short of LeBron working a nightly miracle, might moving Russell Westbrook to the bench be their last card to play?

According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, there is an "increasing push" from the Lakers' higher-ups to demote Westbrook from the starting lineup, "but so far coach Frank Vogel has resisted" making that move. Westbrook started Saturday night vs. the Warriors and finished with 20 points on 9-of-17 shooting.

Vogel has flirted with this idea of moving Westbrook to the bench, and he has held him out of closing stretches of games on a few occasions this season. He's just not suited to play off the ball. He's shooting 28 percent from 3.

Westbrook isn't the Lakers' only problem. But he's at the core of what ails them. He cost them a lot of depth, shooting and perimeter defense to acquire. The Lakers, reportedly at the behest of LeBron James and Anthony Davis, squashed a potential Buddy Hield trade to bring in Westbrook instead.

They went all-in on a player who just isn't very good anymore. Moving Westbrook to the bench isn't going to make him a better fit; it would simply be about subtracting him from the first unit. The question would then become: Will he close games? If a player isn't in the starting lineup, there's definitely no assumption that he'll close.

Westbrook has made it clear he sees himself as a starter and a closer, and he would not be OK with being demoted. Vogel is in a sticky situation. Yanking a former superstar from the starting lineup is a touchy deal. Per Wojnarowski, there have been "some tense moments between Vogel and Westbrook in the past several days, including during a Friday team film session."

We'll see if Vogel eventually pulls the trigger on this move. There's not much of the season left, and the Lakers are running out of time to figure something out.

Comments

Dennis Rodman Once Said He, Michael Jordan, And Scottie Pippen Could Lock Up LeBron James: "LeBron Is So Easy To Play. He’s So F**king Easy To Play. He Doesn’t Have Any Moves."

If there is something that will never end it is the comparison between players from different eras. Even in that niche, most comparisons revolve around the legendary players from the Chicago Bulls. Yes, we are talking about the likes of Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Dennis Rodman. A perfect example of that was seen by fans back in a 2019 interview featuring Dennis Rodman. The Worm was asked about his thoughts on guarding none other than LeBron James. Rodman replied: (starts at 6:06) "You know who could lock up LeBron? Me, Mike, and Scottie could. F*ck yeah. I would have locked his a** up. LeBron is so easy to play. He’s so f*cking easy to play, he don’t have any moves. Only move he has is streak down the line. He ain’t got no moves. Where he going?? Where is he going that’s quick? That’ll be sh*t, you can stop that. Scottie Pippen would have shut his f*cking a** down quick before I get to him. His game is too simple, he’s just big. I’m 260 and 6’8” and 6’9”, that’s the onl...

From Deep: At long last, Nikola Jokic's Nuggets can envision getting to the top of the mountain

Jamal Murray tore his ACL on April 12, 2021. Leading up to that night, he'd been playing at an All-NBA level for two months: In a 25-game stretch, Murray averaged 24.1 points on .509/.459/.935 shooting splits, 4.2 rebounds and 5.2 assists. He was even more efficient than he was in the bubble playoffs, and his defense had improved, too. Murray only got to play with Aaron Gordon, the Denver Nuggets' big trade-deadline addition, for five games. They won them all except the one in which Murray got injured. In 110 minutes, their new starting five scored slightly more efficiently than any iteration of the Kevin Durant-era death lineup in Golden State and defended like a top-five team. Two Nikola Jokic MVP awards later, Murray is back. So is Michael Porter Jr., who signed a five-year extension about a year ago and needed back surgery nine games into the 2020-21 season. The Nuggets remember how easily everything slid into place with Gordon in the mix. Newcomer Kentavious Caldwell-Pop...

Michael Jordan On LeBron James: "He's An Unbelievable Player, He's One Of The Best Players In The World... I'm A Fan Of His, I Love Watching Him Play..."

Even before he made it to the NBA, LeBron James was already compared to the greatest player of all time, Michael Jordan. His Airness made a huge impact on the league, winning six championships in eight years, dominating rivals every night, and becoming one of the best two-way players in NBA history. During his career, and even during his retirement, many players were compared to Jordan, but nobody could live up to the expectations. LeBron James was deemed 'The Chosen One' when he was a teenager, and comparisons between him and MJ never stopped coming. They have mutual respect, and the biggest proof of that came during the 2022 All-Star Game, where MJ and Bron embraced each other in Cleveland. James would post a big pic of his first and most recent encounter with Jordan, paying respect to the man that inspired him. Just like the Los Angeles Lakers superstar has always shown his admiration for James, Jordan has done the same before. Back in 2020, during a press co...

Crossover World

Search This Blog