The Los Angeles Lakers have been disappointing this season, and with their current strength, it would be a surprise to get a straight ticket to the playoffs, but it seems more likely that they will have to pass the playoff test before finally making it to the playoffs. The vast majority blamed the Lakers' problems this season on Russell Westbrook, who traded him offseason and dealt a fatal blow to the team's roster depth and flexibility, and for a player who has won just one round of playoff victories since Kevin Durant's departure, it's clearly not suitable for partnering with LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
The Lakers quickly made an internal decision to trade Westbrook, but general manager Rob Pelinka was powerless before the trade deadline, no team would make the mistakes that the Lakers made in the offseason last year, so Westbrook remained on the team's list, Lakers fans now only pray that a miracle can happen to the Lakers, but for the Lakers, although the possibility of trading Westbrook is no longer there, there is still only one way to make Westbrook leave the team.
The Lakers should simply and clearly tell Wei Shao to go home and stay, Xiaobian is not joking. After all, the Lakers can't trade Westbrook, and the best thing for the team in this situation is not to let him play, and try to find a point guard in the buyout market who can replace him with some playing time, and allocate his remaining playing time to players who should have more playing time, which can bring at least two benefits to the Los Angeles Lakers.
1 Get the Lakers back to their 2020 form
Since the Lakers' lineup depth has been greatly damaged by the arrival of Westbrook, it is impossible to fully return to the state of 2020, but at least it can return the Lakers to the familiar system, that is, with James and Davis as the core, surrounded by a group of pitchers.
This will directly change the Lakers' team building ideas, so that role players can be more aware of their positioning in the team, although the defensive problems still can not be improved, but the so-called barefoot is not afraid to wear shoes, the defense is already very bad, no matter how bad it is, but Xiaobian believes that pitchers such as Malik Munch, Cameello Anthony and Wayne Ellington get more playing time, and the Lakers have the ability to shoot down 130 points every game.
2 May result in Westbrook asking to leave early
This is the wishful thinking of the editor, Wei Shao is a person with strong self-esteem, he really cares about his playing time, although Wei Shao's average playing time this season is basically the same as the season he won the MVP, but he still complains that his recent back injury has caused him to sit more on the bench.
One of the scariest parts of Westbrook's contract was having a $47 million player option in 2022-23, which he has a 95 percent chance of executing, after all, he himself knows he won't get a contract close to that number in the free agent market. However, if the Lakers don't let Westbrook play for the rest of the year, it may directly anger him and cause him to want to leave the Lakers early so that he can get enough playing opportunities next season. And Westbrook still seems to think he's one of the best players in the league, and the reason for the poor performance at the Lakers is entirely because of the system's inadequacy, so maybe he may also be like Dennis Schroeder (who ended up with only a $5.89 million annual mini-mid-term contract) and confident that he will get a big contract in the free agent market.
The Lakers can only accept the fact that the Lakers continue to stay in the team this season, but the above practices at least increase the chances of the Lakers ending their partnership early this summer, which is the real goal, what do you think?