Austin Reaves is the next man up for the Los Angeles Lakers with Russell Westbrook expected to sit out Wednesday's matchup against the Denver Nuggets. As it turns out, this major move is not expected to be a one-game change for the purple & gold.

According to the sources of ESPN's Stephen A Smith, Russ is now going to be coming off the bench when he returns from his hamstring injury (h/t ClutchPoints on Twitter):

“From what I'm being told, Russell Westbrook is not gonna play [on Wednesday vs. the Nuggets], but he's going to probably come off the bench and lead the second unit on Friday in the next game against the Minnesota Timberwolves,” Smith said. That's what I'm being told, so that remains to be seen how that's going to pan out.”

Westbrook's demotion to the second unit has been a long time coming, and it sounds like it's finally going to happen. Whether or not his injury played a role in coach Darvin Ham's decision is unclear, although in reality, it doesn't really matter all that much now.

It is worth noting that Ham and the Lakers have refused to label this move as a “demotion” for Russ. Instead, they see this as a “realignment” of Westbrook's role for the Lakers. Either way, it sounds like the former MVP is now going to get used to coming off the bench — something that he hasn't done throughout his entire career.

It will obviously be interesting to see how Westbrook reacts to this looming transition. We should now all be able to see how committed he is to the cause for the Lakers.