The Los Angeles Clippers have finally found a point guard, and it is none other than the man who was just playing across the hall, Russell Westbrook. Fans, however, already think LeBron James is going to regret wanting to offload Brodie since the start of the 2022-23 season.
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As bad as the Lakers were with the 2017 MVP on the team, the Clippers will definitely benefit from him in some way. Ty Lue has a way to make things work. He made it work with Kyrie Irving, he can surely make it work with this Clippers squad.
Plus, Russ has played with Paul George in OKC and wanted to play with Kawhi Leonard when the Thunder were ready to deal him in 2019, but PG got the better of him. Now that he finally has the chance to play with the Klaw as well as Playoffs P, let’s see how he translates it on the court.
NBA Reddit says if he made James better, he would undoubtedly improve the Clips.
“Russell Westbrook elevated LeBron James”: NBA Reddit
In these days of the internet and analytics, the fans are much behind the professionals who are actually paid to do these things. Despite all the noise around Russ being the man having the most negative impact on James, Anthony Davis, and even the other role players in LA, NBA Reddit has come up with a statistic that will be a surprise to most.
According to it, the 19x All-Star was a better overall player when he was sharing the court with Brodie. His net rating was a ‘+7’ with Westbrook, whereas ‘0’ without him.
Not just him, Russ also elevated AD’s game as well. Davis and other Purple and Gold bigs were doing much better than any centers in the NBA with the former Thunder guard on the court. However,
Westbrook might not be the ideal teammate for the Clippers duo
I might be contradicting myself but look at the guards the Clips offloaded before they signed Russ. John Wall was never a good shooter and it didn’t change this season after they signed him just at the start of the season only to send him back to Houston.
Reggie Jackson was not having a bad shooting season himself and the Clippers do what? Replace them both with another not-so-good shooter who likes to take his chances.
Only if he plays more as a pass-first guy Brodie’s new teammates are going to benefit from him.