There has been an increased pressure in the Los Angeles Lakers to bench their famous guard Russell Westbrook but Coach Frank Vogel has been unwilling to bring him off the bench so far, as stated by ESPN.
Poor Performance Of Westbrook Affected Los Angeles Lakers
Westbrook and his coaching team had a clash of views regarding how to use the NBA (MVP) of 2017 and that has amounted to some differences between Los Angeles Lakers’ Coach Vogel and Westbrook in the past week, which includes a filming session the last Friday, sources told.
The frustration build-up can be seen in this season’s game. The Lakers have won 3 out of 14 of their games played and have lost 4 games in a row, to drop to 27-35. The Los Angeles Lakers are at the ninth position in the Western Conference and only a half-game ahead of New Orleans Pelicans.
Westbrook has been trying to perfect himself and hone his skills as much as he can and that has put him in an unfamiliar position far from the ball and away from playmaking. He has averaged 18.1 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 7.3 assists in 34.4 minutes a game this season.
Vogel is still hopeful of Westbrook’s comeback and a possible late-season charge as he did in last season with Washington Wizards.
When Vogel was asked about the possibility of Westbrook taking a bench role, Vogel stated that they conducted many discussions just like trade discussions where every minute detail is not talked about. Most of the time, the debates do not turn out to be effective in any way. The team had analyzed every situation and evaluated what is best for the team and yet did not come up with a better plan.
In the previous five seasons, Los Angeles Laker’s Westbrook was scoring less than 30% which has not even deteriorated to less than 20 points in 10 back-to-back games. This is Westbrook’s longest stretch since the year 2019.
