“I love Russell Westbrook, man! We ain’t going to try to curtail his energy”: Lakers new Head Coach is happy to run it back with 2017 MVP than going for Kyrie Irving

While Russell Westbrook and Kyrie Irving are hanging in to know where they stand, the Lakers coach comes up with a statement that will smooth him, a bit.

A few weeks ago it certainly looked like the Lakers will have no option but to play Westbrook one more year as his $47 million contract sucks most out of their squad’s available cap space.

That changed when his former teammate in OKC, Kevin Durant, requested a transfer from his current team, the Brooklyn Nets. That also triggered them to look for options to offload Kyrie Irving. That’s when the Purple and Gold found a glimmer of hope.

And now Brodie looks all set to face an all-new challenge with another franchise as the Los Angeles Lakers target LeBron James‘ former teammate who just has a year left in his contract.

The pieces around that deal are yet in discussions which are making it take this long. While that is happening, the other Lakers coach has said something about their 9x All-Star point guard that will send chills to the bones of Laker Nation yet again.

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Darvin Ham would love to start Russell Westbrook as starting point guard

Heading into this next season, Ham said he plans to deploy the 2017 MVP as the starting point guard of the Lakers. He also told Marc J. Spears of Andscape a little bit about his plans to use Westbrook, remaining on specific details but saying that criticism of Brodie and counting out the 33-years-old would be “premature”.

“Counted out prematurely. Counted out. Prematurely.” Ham said. “I’ve had some great interactions with Russ, in person, over dinner, over the phone, over text messages. I love Russell Westbrook, man. Just his mentality, his approach. Just to see him, a guy of that magnitude and everything he’s done in the league to get hated on.”

Westbrook averaged 18.5 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 7.1 assists per game on 44.4 per cent shooting from the field and 29.8 per cent shooting from three-point range. If he does stay in LA when the dust settles after this offseason, it’ll actually be a little surprising to see how he compensates for last season’s shortcomings.

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If indeed the Lakers fail to reach a common ground with the Nets in negotiations, despite Kyrie’s desire to play in LA, this year might have the biggest impact on the legacy of Westbrook and Davis if not the Lakers.