NBA Champion Defends Russell Westbrook's Struggles on Lakers
It's been a year since Russell Westbrook was a member of the Lakers, but his tenure on the team is still affecting his legacy today. Just recently, ESPN ranked him 94th in the NBA, which is clearly still based on his time with the Lakers and not his playoff performance with the Clippers. Former NBA Champion Iman Shumpert highly disagrees with the struggles and blame Westbrook received while on the Lakers.
In a previous interview with VladTV, Shumpert defended Westbrook for the blame he received when the Lakers didn't make the playoffs. In fact, he believed it was just truly a bad fit with LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
“Bro, he didn’t throw himself into this to get 20 percent touches and now he gotta be super efficient,” Shumpert said. “His whole knock has been he’s not efficient his whole career. He don’t play on efficiency, he play on heart."
In terms of playing with LeBron James, Shumpert believed that the two just have conflicting styles. LeBron plays with a certain pace and Westbrook plays at a more erratic pace. If there's one player who knows LeBron's style of play, it's Iman Shumpert.
“And now you gotta deal with Bron and them," Shumpert said. "They needed to play at a different pace. Bron needs to control the pace, push when he wants to. Russ needs y’all to have as many broken plays. A rebound happen, and y’all gotta deal with him comin’ full speed and you gotta look for Russ over your shoulder. You gotta deal with him doin’ that. That’s Russ’ game. That’s where he becomes a nightmare for you.”
Even though Russell Westbrook was traded to the Clippers last season, he never had a chance to enter a training camp with the team. This season, Westbrook will receive a truly fair chance at redemption, and hopefully, it'll be one that ranks him higher than 94th in the NBA.
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