Will Russell Westbrook Have Same Willingness To Come Off Bench As Dwyane Wade?

Miami Heat legend Dwyane Wade was the top reserve for most of the final two and a half years of his Hall of Fame career.

It was quite the change for Wade after so many years as a starter. For the most part, he handled it well. In fact, he enjoyed it so much during his final "Last Dance" season. He set a Heat record with 35 points off the bench.

"I actually did it myself," Wade said of coming off the bench at the time. "I was like, ‘I’m going to come off the bench because I want to make this work.’ This is when I was in the other place [Cleveland]. And then obviously coming back here, coming to this team that already had things going, I was comfortable already in my role. But for me, it was just trying to figure out, ‘How can I be successful? How can my team be successful?’ What I needed to do. I really didn’t need to reach out to somebody to find that out. I needed to look within, and that’s what I’ve tried to do.”

The Wade situation comes to mind with the Los Angeles Lakers and Russell Westbrook. An ESPN report says Westbrook will come of the bench for their final preseason game Friday, with hopes of making it permanent.

The question is will Westbrook accept it willingly as Wade? Like Wade, Westbrook is a future Hall of Famer. He's been one of the most dominant players in the last 15 years.

Westbrook is two years younger than when Wade was asked to move to the bench but the situations are still the same. Injuries have slowed Westbrook the past few seasons as he's played for three teams since leaving Oklahoma City in 2019.

It will be interesting to see if he deals with the situation or creates drama in LA.

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Shandel Richardson is the Miami Heat writer for Inside The Heat. He can also be read in the Sportsbook Review for gambling coverage from around the NBA.