The Los Angeles Lakers plan to shift Russell Westbrook to a bench role for the foreseeable future, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. Assuming Anthony Davis, who is a game-time decision with back stiffness, suits up against the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Lakers will put Russ' “realignment” into motion on Friday night.

Experimenting with Westbrook off the bench is not only the right course of action for both the Lakers and Russ, but it's also their only option besides sending him home if they want to win basketball games — something they've to accomplish this season.

Westbrook is far from the Lakers' only issue, as evidenced by their 11-point loss to the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday sans Russ. That said, his inability to make jump shots has cratered the team's spacing and offense overall and has arguably cost them two games in crunch time. His fit alongside Anthony Davis and LeBron James is abysmal — and isn't going to get any better.

Westbrook is averaging 10.3 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 4.3 assists in 28.7 minutes per game. He's shooting 28.9 percent from the field and 8.0 percent from three-point range.

The Lakers are dead-last in offensive rating by a mind-blowing margin. They've made just 33 out of 148 attempts from deep.

Darvin Ham has been planting the seeds for this move since his introductory press conference. He finally made the call to try Westbrook as a Sixth Man in the preseason finale, but Westbrook left the game after five minutes with a hamstring issue. He then blamed the injury on coming off the bench, as he did with a back injury last season.

If Westbrook can embrace the opportunity to be the lead play-maker against second units, he has a chance to actually help Los Angeles while rebuilding his standing around the league as a team-first contributor ahead of free agency. If not, the Lakers will send him home and his NBA future will get even murkier.