Russell Westbrook Is Finally Good But The Lakers Don't Care

Russell Westbrook is shooting better from 3 than LeBron since coming off the bench. Wait what? Westbrook is finally playing well, but no one is talking about him. Last year, the hate was loud. Russ was a mess. Blown defenses, several turnovers, a lot of air balls, missed layups, and everyone let him know. The crowd, analysts, me. Even the first three games of this season was bad. But it feels like we've come a long way from this. Since Russ moved to the bench, he's averaging 15.7 points, 8.1 assists, on 41.5% from the field. But now, Russ is on 9 of the top 10 performing 5 player lineups for the Lakers. Now he's having a positive impact that has actually led to wins. The only reason why this is all relevant is that the Lakers are 7-2 in their past 9 games, with very little credit going to Russ. I haven't seen ESPN showering his praises versus last year when they were making a video every other day on his downfall. Just yesterday against the Bucks, Russ had 5 assists in under 3 minutes in the first quarter, giving AD the ball deep in the paint, and instead of making it about him and Holiday on this post up, he just makes a beautiful crosscourt pass to Reeves. The Lakers go from being down 4 to being up 3. Just like if y'all liking the content, feel free to subscribe, cuz over 75% of y'all aren't. Got 2 more breakdowns next week that the media won't focus on. But as Kendrick Nunn begins to handle the ball, Russ is now playing off ball and out of sorts. Same with LeBron on the floor. What is this bruh? Rather, when LeBron moves off ball, Russ finds him. Part of that is that Russ is averaging more time per touch, nearly a second more, which might seem counterintuitive to good basketball, but for him, that's what gets Russ going, which in turn gets the team going. It's the little things, the intangibles. But there's also an ugly truth looming in the background. What is up dudes, dudettes, ballers, players. It's ya boi MJ. Watching the games, you can visibly notice the Lakers gain momentum when Russ steps on the court. He's number 8 in the league in pace since coming off the bench at 106.2, but in the first quarter, his pace is 109.4. Last year, he was a respectable 34th in the league at 102.5, but that was his lowest since 2018. Russ is a better player when he can run like a kid on caffeine, and it's a dramatically different look from a LeBron-led offense that is pretty stagnant. The best situation for Russ has been a 5-man lineup of Russ, AD, Lonnie, Reeves, and Bev at plus 8.6, and his worst lineup has pretty much been similar. It's mostly the same unit, but switching out Beverly with Bron. That lineup is a minus 15.2. Bron and Russ just don't work. In fact, LeBron and Russ together is a no-no. They are a negative 6.1, and the crazy thing is, it might not even be Russ' fault this time. LeBron has at several times this season jacked up bad shots and failed to play defense. That 17 point lead the Lakers blew against the Pacers, yeah, LeBron took several bad shots and didn't even get back on defense as the Pacers scored 10 straight. What are you doing? I've mentioned before that some of the best Lakers lineups were without LeBron and with Russ. So maybe we should be looking at someone else. Russ gets a lot of heat for his shot selection, but when on the court, he's been primarily setting up his teammates. He assists on 38.7% of Lakers field goals while on the floor. That puts him 8th in the league up there with names like Jokic and Ja. But y'all might say, oh yeah, that's just Russ passing for the assist. Not surprisingly, Russ is at his best when he's on the floor with dudes who space the floor and play hard. This glow up, Russ coming off the bench, is exactly what I did with my wallet with the sponsor of today's video, Ridge Wallet. This makes me look like I have Michael Jordan hands. The Ridge Wallet is a slim, RFID blocking, minimalist wallet made from metal with a lifetime warranty and savings up to 40% off with ridge.com backslash MJ2K. This one is made from forged carbon and looks dope. This ain't it. Try it! Now I can just carry this and my most essential items. Plus, it's easy to get out what you want and right back in. Ridge Wallet holds up to 12 cards plus room for cash. And Ridge is so confident that you'll like it that they'll let you test drive it for 99 days. And you can send it back for a full refund if you don't love it. There's over 30 cards to choose from. Mine is forged ember. And with over 50,000 5-star reviews, it's a no-brainer. So if you like all these young players getting a bag, check out the link in the description for savings up to 40% off. In extremely small sample size, the 4-man lineup of Russ, Reeves, Thomas Bryant, and Wendell Gabriel has a ridiculous net rating of 52.8. Reeves out here quietly putting together a 50-40-90 season and a lot of that has to do with Russ and the baddies. Russ has been amazing in late shot clock situations, hitting 60% effective field goal percentage compared to 48 last year. And that is just fueled by hitting open shots. Last year, teams gave Russ enough space for Elon to explore as he only hit 31.25% of open or wide open threes. This year, he's at 40% from 3 when the closest defender is 4 or 6 plus feet away from him. He's actually making threes. And Russ is also bullying the babies in the post, scoring 1.18 points per possession when posting up, which puts him in the 89th percentile in the entire league. That's his highest mark ever. But the celebrations gotta stop cuz nothing good ever follows. It's also possible that AD getting his powers back are opening opportunities for Russ, but the Russ and AD lineups barely have a positive net rating of .4. On offense, the duo scores 118 points per 100 possessions. For context, the Celtics this season are on pace to shatter the scoring mark at 121.5 points per 100 possessions. Second on the list are the Suns at 116.5. So Russ and AD offensively has been working. But the Lakers' biggest issue is the weird fit between the big 3 or mainly LeBron and Russ. It's really not possible to play all 3 in crunch time, which is why Russ' numbers fall off a cliff in the 4th quarter. His pace slows from 107.9 to 100.4 and his defensive rating goes from 111 to 133.6. Simply put, Russ is just not getting the ball and mentally definitely plays a role. Russ can absolutely still be a winning basketball player when in the right situation. All these stats might explain what's going on in the court, but why did Russ all of a sudden start to play better? Remember when Russ got hurt for coming off the bench? We all know how Russ is. He's very proud and stubborn, unapologetically himself, part of what's made him so great in the past. So Darvin Ham telling Russ to go to the bench would irritate him at first, but in Russ' eyes, anything was better than Vogel. Apparently, Russ never respected Vogel from day 1 because Frank said that anybody who gets the rebound can bring it up the court. Russ said, nah, I'm the point guard, and just wanted the ball in his hands since he didn't know how else to play. Frank did bench Russ once in the clutch, but we all know how that went. While Darvin might have benched Russ, he has given Russ more touches, allowed Westbrook to run the offense, especially in minutes without LeBron. But Darvin and Russ just seem to have a much closer relationship than Vogel and Russ. I mean the guy was crying over Russ playing well off the bench. That's a deep bond right there. I do believe that Ham really got through Russ and explained to him that starting isn't everything, and more importantly, let Russ finish games. Ever since he's been coming off the bench, Russ' confidence has skyrocketed. Now, he looks to pass first and makes more calculated reads while still attacking. Russ is also a player that heavily feeds off the crowd. If the crowd chews him on, his confidence goes to the roof and when his confidence rises, he feels like he can do anything. This is a lot better than the crowd booing. To all the delusional Russ fans, benching Russ allows him to play the style he wants and be a floor raiser at the same time. But it was on Russ for not being willing to come off the bench. And Russ' style doesn't necessarily lead to wins as the primary focus. He's still a negative 27 net rating in the 4th quarter, the worst on the Lakers. However, the way the Lakers are constructed, this is how Russ is the most effective, in spurts off the bench. But while this has been obvious to most fans, I still want to give Russ props for accepting his new role. It has clearly been one of the main reasons why the Lakers have enjoyed their recent success, and the best part is that this is sustainable, as long as AD stays healthy. There's still a lot of uncertainty though. The Lakers could still be looking to trade Russ despite him doing everything that is being asked of him. It's been reported that the Lakers may look to move Russ after December 15th. While I do agree that the Lakers need to improve their roster with shooters, especially for the playoffs, this would be the ultimate slap in the face to Westbrook who's finally cleaned up his act and the Lakers are actually winning. The Lakers are figuring it out, and if they can figure out how to pair LeBron and Westbrook together, this team might actually do something. The ALLDAY notification I want to shout out goes to my girl OG Day 1 Maria Jo, who is happy the Warriors are winning again. Thanks for the ALLDAY support. If you want to know how everyone's covering up LeBron's decline and hiding it from you, there's a video right here. And if you're still here, you'll really want to comment and bench so I know. It's ya boi MJ. We Out! We Robbin!