The Los Angeles Lakers entered their 2021-22 campaign with 11 new players. The beginning of their season was filled with home games and non-playoff opponents, but they have suffered heartbreaking losses to non-playoff contenders.
One key acquisition to the franchise is superstar point guard Russell Westbrook. Rob Pelinka added Westbrook to have another reliable scorer and ball handler to complement the best duo in the NBA—at least when they're fully healthy—of LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
Among the downsides of adding Westbrook was further limiting the Lakers' roster flexibility under confines of the salary cap. Westbrook will be paid over $91 million dollars for the next two seasons, even more than James and Davis. With an abysmal 5-5 start to their season, here are three plausible reasons on why the Lakers made a mistake in trading for Westbrook instead of a package centered around Buddy Hield.
Inefficiency of Westbrook
Ever since the arrival of James and Davis, three-point shooting has been a constant weakness of this organization. Inserting Westbrook to the starting lineup clogs up the lane even more as he is shooting an atrocious 26.8% from behind the arc. Moreover, Frank Vogel has decided to play either DeAndre Jordan or Dwight Howard in several junctures of the game, which lessens their shooting options even more.
Even as the third star on the squad, Westbrook is continuing to attempt 18.2 shots a game, but he is only converting 7.6 field goals. Despite his terrible shooting from long range, he is still continuing to attempt over four threes per game. With his ineffectiveness on jumpers, Westbrook must watch tape of Dwyane Wade playing with James during their Miami Heat days because both of them were below-average shooters, but they found a way to make it work through admirable chemistry and phenomenal teamwork.
With Westbrook being used to having a high usage rate, he must adjust with other stars in his team and focus on claiming that elusive Larry O'Brien trophy.
Decision-making of Westbrook
Westbrook's competitive fire is unrelenting—well, at least on offense. However, he must improve his decision-making and control his emotions in crucial moments of the game. For instance, he attempted two questionable three-point shots in crunch-time of both of the Lakers' losses to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Moreover, he also committed a costly turnover and disastrous defensive lapse in Los Angeles' loss to the Thunder on Thursday.
Westbrook is well known to drive the ball to the paint a plethora of times all throughout the game, and also dishes it out to his teammates when they are open. On the other hand, his hard-charging drives and changes of speed could also be enhanced if he plans to be a main catalyst of the championship run of the Lakers. Over the last few games, Vogel adjusted and started playing four guards and wings with Davis more frequently, which could also help Westbrooks find his groove with his new team.
Slow start by role players
Before the season even began, L.A. already had four injuries that hindered their depth. Additionally four of their main losses from last season in Kyle Kuzma, Montrezl Harrell, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Alex Caruso have been flourishing on their respective squads. If the Lakers decided to acquire Hield from Sacramento, they might have been able to keep Caruso and at least one of Caldwell-Pope and Kuzma to better keep an elite defense intact.
With their shortage in defensive stalwarts, the losses of Caruso and Caldwell-Pope, especially, have been immensely felt as the Lakers have dropped to just 14th in defensive rating this year, per NBA.com/stats. Teams like the Thunder and Houston Rockets are some of the worst in the association, but they were able to score over 100 points against the Lakers.
Los Angeles' spacing around James and Davis would be superior with Hield in the fold, not to mention its overall production from beyond the arc. James has long been at his best surrounded by multiple catch-and-shoot threats, and Hield is a historic-level marksman. Pelinka would have a more realistic pathway to make in-season improvements to the roster if the Lakers had traded for Hield instead of Westbrook, too.
It's still too early in the season to say that the big 3 of James, Davis, and Westbrook will not win any championships together. But having Hield and numerous other role players may have been a more well-oiled roster for the Lakers.
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