New failure of the Lakers. Enthusiasm, if we keep track of a season that is getting long for them and that will end in the play-in or in the first round of playoffs. They will get there by inertia, not by merit: they have a record of 26-30They are in ninth position in the Western Conference, they have no meaning or direction and before the market closed they fell into another embarrassment, this time against the Blazers. Said result presaged that the situation was so untenable that Rob Pelinka and the rest of the Lakers board were going to move in some kind of direction at the close of the market. But nevertheless, Angelenos have seen them pass and will be able to fish in the buyouts to come, but nothing more. The squad is what it is, the team is that bad and it will be as it is until the end of a season whose end, due to boredom and total pessimism, seems never to come.
The Lakers, who have lost 19 of their 30 games by 10 points or less (they have won 16 of 26 by the same difference), are in no man’s land, they have no ambition, They show a notorious apathy and arrive every night like someone who is going to sign the company, just to fulfill. Pelinka, the main person responsible for the arrival of Russell Westbrook with LeBron James (everyone knew what was going to happen except, it seems, them) has not moved, confirming that the year is thrown away, something that we have resisted to believe until we have had no choice but to believe it. The blind faith that fewer and fewer people had in this group of veteran players, vain for no reason, became an absolutely unjustified feeling that not even the most optimistic of fans has. “In the end, we didn’t find a deal that had a net positive effect on the team’s short-term and long-term success, and those are the two things we considered“, Pelinka has said about the absence of movements. well that.
The situation is so Dantesque that, to the criticism of Magic Johnson and James Worthy last morning, Christian Rivas has joined, an angel blogger who writes for SB Nation and who is, by nameinfinitely less important than the two aforementioned Lakers legends, but who has perfectly defined this season: “Now that the trade deadline has passed, I can definitely say this is my least favorite Lakers team of all time.“, prayed a tweet that, being a clear exaggeration, also perfectly confirms the negative feelings that are in the hearts of Los Angeles, full of weariness and without any hope this season beyond seeing the games go by and pray that some kind of miracle will happen in summer.
Westbrook stays where he is
It has been the main thing, what was already known, what everyone took for granted and what the Los Angeles fan wanted Yes happen, even knowing that couldn’t happen. Some rumors suggested that with LeBron’s yesWestbrook could head to the Rockets in exchange for John Wall, but it seems that he has decided to do nothing because for what. They were two practically identical contracts and to sign a physically affected John Wall, you can leave Westbrook on the bench if necessary. A practice that has already been used by Frank Vogel (another whose future hangs in the balance) on a couple of occasions, with mixed results for the Angelenos and anger from the point guard, who said that he had earned the right to be in the final minutes. That’s the level.
Westbrook will pocket 44 million this course and has a player option 47 next year, a number he will almost certainly assume, since if he goes to free agency he will not find anything even remotely similar to that salary. The teams do not want him, much less the first level, and he may stay one more season in the Lakers, the team from his hometown, in that beautiful story that has not been given by a reviled point guard and an objectively nice guy, who fails to transfer to the track the pleasant personality he shows off it. And meanwhile, he’s averaging 18.3 points (the worst since his sophomore year), 6.5 rebounds and 7.8 assists, with a pyrrhic 43.4% in field goals and below 30% in triples. In the last four games, 10.3, with 27.5% and 15.4% respectively. Words are unnecessary.
And Westbrook, if he stays one more year, will leave for free agency in 2023, the same year in which a LeBron James will do so, who will then be very close to 39 years old and facing his 21st season in the NBA. There are more and more voices that place the end of the career of the Rey (29.1 ppg this season, unbelievable) in his native Ohio. In Cleveland, in Akron. In the franchise in which he has been 11 seasons, adding five Finals in total and one title. On the Cavaliers, the team he put on the map. And maybe, who knows, with his son Bronnie. And all without the possibility of that fifth ring that would raise him a little higher in the eternal fight of the GOAT, which will be judged entirely in his withdrawal. for now, the Lakers throw this season, except for a major surprise, in the trash. In February. Something incredible for an entity that has 17 champion rings in its showcases. Anyway: live to see.
