Anthony Davis, LeBron James, and Russell Westbrook – the 3-6-0 experiment that was a total failure.
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When the 2021 Off-Season rolled in, the Lakers faithful were over the moon. For they had finally brought a local home – Russell Westbrook was a Laker. Having failed to bring in Kawhi Leonard just a couple of seasons prior, this move was to show the league they could still hold their own against anyone.
6 games into the pre-season and it was all laid bare for the world to see. The combination was like how Sheldon Cooper would put it “A peanut butter and jelly sandwich with petroleum jelly, the worst tasting jelly”. 6 straight losses, and not by small margins. LeBron James had the worst tweet of all time right after this, which he promptly deleted halfway into the season.
It was very obvious even to an untrained eye what was wrong with the Lakers. Frank Vogel, a coach who had won the championship two seasons ago now looked like a Sunday league coach who didn’t know and care what his players were capable of. The dressing room had big names, but no chemistry.
Fans saw how the defense was set up – A snail could dribble past them, and they’d be standing still and ball watching. To have big men like Anthony Davis and Dwight Howard, but not have them on rebound duty is sacrilegious.
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That was not all the problems the Lakers had. When they won the title in the Bubble season, LeBron was their primary ball-handler with the likes of Rajon Rondo leading the second unit. Bringing in Westbrook ate into the hands-on-ball time for both the players, causing disharmony in an otherwise stable team.
CJ McCollum rightly pointed out the exact point as a guest analyst on the ‘First Take’ with Stephen A. Smith. The man knows Westbrook very well, after playing against him multiple times. He also rightly pointed out that if Bron was picked to be Number 1, Russ could change his game to “catch and drive” as he did with the Houston Rockets.
Stephen A. Smith in his usual brash self was on cue to dismiss all points that a calm CJ had to make. SAS is that kid who when losing an argument starts shouting because they have nothing meaningful to say. He knew CJ was right, so he decided to make a tangent out of the whole story, just to stump the Pelicans man.
The deep-dish pizza hating self righteous New York Knicks supporter showed his true colors when he decided to cut short valid points that made him look bad. SAS, take it from actual professional players who’ve played more minutes than you have hair on that big forehead – they know what they’re talking about.
