Lakers News: Is Russell Westbrook, Sixth Man, An Experiment Or A Long-Term Plan?
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Russell Westbrook performed pretty admirably in his debut as a bench player with your Los Angeles Lakers last night. Though the team lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves 111-102, Westbrook had one of his better games of the year, chipping in 18 points, eight rebounds, three assists, a steal and a block. Granted, he still shot 35.3% from the floor and 50% from the charity stripe, but Lakers fans will take what they can get, and what they got was an aggressive, energetic showing from the team's priciest player.
So is this transition to Westbrook-as-sixth-man a short-term experiment or a possible long-term solution? Per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, it's the latter.
Woj writes that new Lakers head coach Darvin Ham intends to use Westbrook as a reserve piece "for the foreseeable future. With the minutes of Westbrook and lead playmaker LeBron James a bit more staggered, the impact can be two-fold: first, Westbrook will get to control more of the offense as more of a primary ball-handler while on the floor sans James, and second, he will look better playing against lesser opposing players.
In a fascinating tidbit, Westbrook had been the third-longest-tenured active starter in the NBA prior to Friday night, behind only his teammate James and Phoenix Suns All-Star point guard Chris Paul.
L.A. apparently was planning to shift Anthony Davis to a power forward role last night, as Woj adds in the same piece that the club practiced with a lineup that featured Davis at the four, Westbrook's point guard frenemy Patrick Beverley, shooting guard Lonnie Walker IV, James at small forward, and Damian Jones at center. Those plans were scuttled when Davis wound up sitting to rest his sore lower back last night. Ham instead moved 6'6' small forward Troy Brown Jr. into the starting lineup, shifted James to power forward and kept Jones in at center.
