How Russell Westbrook's trajectory improved after departing the Lakers
Editor's note: This story was written prior to the NBA's free agency period, which started Friday night. Westbrook reportedly agreed to a two-year deal to stay with the Clippers on Saturday. Click here to read more.
The numbers would suggest that the Russell Westbrook who finished the season as an LA Clipper was the same as the one who started it as a Los Angeles Laker. Points, assists, turnovers — nearly identical. (He was actually a better rebounder for the Lakers.)
Take it as the latest proof that numbers don't reflect who a player is or his impact on a team. Anyone who followed the Westbrook saga knows he was an unmitigated purple-and-gold pariah, blamed for the Lakers' failure to make the playoffs in 2021-22 and their early struggles last season. The Clippers' Westbrook? That version is merely credited with helping them reach the playoffs and putting up a noble first-round fight before bowing out to the Phoenix Suns.
Same guy, same game. Entirely different results. And it may have not only rebuilt Westbrook's value heading into free agency Friday evening but also revealed what kind of roster is a proper fit.
But how?
There are a whole host of reasons. But at the top of the list: the Clippers wanted him. The Lakers wanted him gone.
"We accepted him with open arms," Clippers forward Marcus Morris said. "I think that's the biggest thing. The Lakers are one of those teams that when something happens, people get a grasp of it, and it just goes and keeps going. That can get to you after a while. You get the sense that everything is on you."
Westbrook refused to admit, at the time, how much all of that weighed on him, but he came clean in his season-ending news conference. He leaned back in his chair, frequently flashing a smile under a tan baseball cap with a grinning Mickey Mouse above the bill. His thoughtful, expansive answers to a room full of reporters and cameras were a far cry from the dour-looking Westbrook who was asked in the fall by the Lakers media about coming off the bench, appearing disengaged from his teammates and, well, just not playing like a former league MVP and nine-time All-Star.
So what prompted his transformation back into that player? How did he wind up helping the Clippers win 11 of their last 16 games to finish six games over .500 and secure the fifth seed despite the injury absence of All-Star forward Paul George? And what does his Clippers resurrection portend for his career from here, as he enters free agency?
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"Once I got traded," he said, "immediately, to be honest, from that moment, mentally, I was in a better place. For me, personally, it's been a rollercoaster, mentally and emotionally. Not just for me, but for my family … I'm so grateful and blessed to end up in this situation where I was allowed to be myself and brought in with open arms. [It allowed] me to go out and play and compete."
But wasn't he embraced when the Lakers acquired him before the 2021-22 season? Not exactly. Reviews of the move were mixed from the start. Plenty of Lakers fans and media members questioned how he and LeBron James would function together, both being at their best with the ball in their hands. Rumors circulated — and league sources insist — that GM Rob Pelinka would've preferred to acquire sharpshooter Buddy Hield from the Sacramento Kings but acquiesced to the desires of James, who wanted Westbrook's fiery personality and competitive nature to help him motivate big man Anthony Davis.
"The Lakers organization didn't want him," an Eastern Conference scout said. "A player can sense that, and it can affect him in a big way, mentally."
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Compounding the issue was that Davis and James were one year removed from proving they could be a championship-winning combination; it would be on Westbrook to tailor his game to fit theirs.
Westbrook was willing. He just wasn't able. His usage rate plummeted to the lowest in 13 years. His production was comparable on a per-minute basis to what it had been the previous season with the Wizards. But he didn't look the same. Trying to be a complementary player after more than a decade as a centerpiece was harder than he ever imagined. He looked out of sync, uncharacteristically tentative or out-of-control aggressive.
"I've been in a bunch of teams and I had to figure out how to fit in," Morris said. "The caliber he's been for so long, it's not easy to ask him to figure out how to fit in. It was tough."
When the Lakers didn't even make the play-in tournament with a 33-49 record two seasons ago, critics suggested the team would be better if it just released him. Trading for point guard Patrick Beverley, a known Westbrook nemesis, was another indicator that the team viewed him as more of a hindrance than a help.
"You're playing at home and you get the sense that everything is on you," Morris said. "He got booed a few times out there. As a player that hurts and can definitely mess with your confidence."
The final, morale-crushing blow came when the Dallas Mavericks acquired Kyrie Irving from the Brooklyn Nets. Rumors had already surfaced over the previous summer that the Lakers were looking for a way to make a Westbrook-for-Irving deal. But the Lakers, a league source said, assured Westbrook throughout the season that they were not looking to trade him to the Nets or anyone else. When James publicly expressed disappointment in not acquiring Irving, it not only told Westbrook that the Lakers had tried to deal him, but that James had hoped to see it happen.
"I can't sit here and say I'm not disappointed on not being able to land such a talent, but [also] someone that I had great chemistry with, and know I got great chemistry with on the floor, that can help you win championships, in my mind, in my eyes," James told ESPN shortly before the trade deadline.
Lakers fans celebrated when, three days later, Westbrook was finally moved to the Utah Jazz in a three-team deal that brought back a previously run-out-of-town point guard, D'Angelo Russell, and journeymen Jarred Vanderbilt and Malik Beasley. The Jazz made it clear, a source said, that Westbrook was welcome to join them, but that they were focused on developing their younger players.
[2023 NBA free agency, trade tracker]
An executive who worked with Westbrook earlier in his career says that contrary to popular belief, Westbrook is not hard to coach. But you have to know exactly what you want and be able to articulate it. With a slew of injuries, Westbrook's first Lakers coach, Frank Vogel, didn't know from game to game what he needed. Vogel's replacement last season, Darvin Ham, was learning on the job.
"Russ is fine if you tell him what to do," the executive said. "It's when you show any uncertainty about what you want, that's where you're going to lose him."
Clippers GM Lawrence Frank, coach Ty Lue and Westbrook all met several times, a source said, before they signed him. Lue told him he would start, but how much he played in the fourth quarter would be situational.
"He respected Ty," the source said, "and Ty was honest with him."
Lue's philosophy also dovetailed with Westbrook's instinctual style of play, relying less on specific sets and more on a player's ability to read and react.
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"You can try to fit yourself into an unhealthy degree where you're almost not yourself to your own detriment," Clippers center Mason Plumlee said. "I've experienced that in the league, too. Ty wants people not thinking but playing aggressive and instinctual and that goes a long way."
The innuendo that Westbrook was a bad teammate prompted Clippers center Ivica Zubac to reach out to players — Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot and Patrick Patterson — who had played with him before.
"I had a lot of mutual teammates that only said great things about him and that proved to be true," Zubac said. "PG has been talking about him forever. [Timothe] Luwawu-Cabarrot, I played with him in Europe. A few other guys. Everyone only had good things to say about him. He's proved all those words right. He's a great leader and a great dude on and off the court."
Plumlee compared Westbrook to Hall of Fame power forward Kevin Garnett, in terms of being far more engaging as a teammate than their public persona might suggest.
"The one teammate I've had similar to him that really brings everybody together in the locker room is [Kevin] Garnett," Plumlee said. "Because when they walk in, whether it's practice, shootaround, the plane, they're speaking to everybody, they're making fun of everybody. That's the only reason I point to him. Russ is just as happy to come in and see [then-rookie] Moussa [Diabate] as he is to see Kawhi [Leonard]. From a locker room perspective, that's a cool thing. Since I've been with him that's what I've experienced. It's a long season, so those people are appreciated."
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The Clippers roster also had personnel that could play to Westbrook's strengths, much like the ones he had in OKC. There he had sure-handed rim-running big men such as Steven Adams and Serge Ibaka; with the Clippers it was Plumlee and Zubac. That the Clippers were the third-best 3-point shooting team this season also helped; the Thunder had the same ranking when Westbrook helped them reach the 2013 NBA Finals.
His first year with the Lakers might have gone differently had Davis not been limited to 40 games because of injury, which left Westbrook to work with two past-their-prime centers, DeAndre Jordan and Dwight Howard. Malik Monk and Carmelo Anthony were the only consistent long-range threats. His second year might have been different, too, if the shooters and wing defenders the Lakers acquired by moving him had been on the roster with him.
"The Clippers were just a better fit because of what they had — bigs he could play off of and shooters," the Eastern Conference scout said. "The Lakers actually would have been a good fit if they'd had the team they got by trading him."
Keeping Westbrook will still be a challenge for the Clippers. He and Plumlee are the only unrestricted free agents, but they already are over the salary cap for next season with their existing contracts. By the sound of it, though, Westbrook is hoping the team can open its checkbook for him the same way it did its arms.
"I love it here," he said. "I know I can help them out as we got a whole season and a whole camp and whole summer to be able to re-evaluate what we want to do as a team. Hopefully, we can make that happen."
Ric Bucher is an NBA writer for FOX Sports. He previously wrote for Bleacher Report, ESPN The Magazine and The Washington Post and has written two books, "Rebound," on NBA forward Brian Grant’s battle with young onset Parkinson’s, and "Yao: A Life In Two Worlds." He also has a daily podcast, "On The Ball with Ric Bucher." Follow him on Twitter @RicBucher.
