Two weeks after being traded to the Utah Jazz, Russell Westbrook is back in L.A.
Westbrook scored 27 points on Feb. 7 in his final game with the Lakers. Los Angeles sent him to the Jazz the next day, but he’ll head back to the same home arena without playing a game elsewhere.
The Clippers overhauled their roster at the trade deadline, bringing in Eric Gordon, Mason Plumlee and Bones Hyland, while sending out Reggie Jackson, Luke Kennard and John Wall. Now they’ll have Westbrook as well, making it the second time in 26 months a team swapped out Wall for Westbrook.
The move also reunites Westbrook with Paul George, his teammate from 2017-19 in Oklahoma City. The Thunder finished fourth and sixth in the Western Conference both seasons, with George having his best individual season in 2018-19. PG-13 finished third in the MVP voting after averaging 28 points and leading the league in steals, but he asked for a trade when Kawhi Leonard signed with the Clippers that summer.
That’s also what sparked Westbrook’s nomadic journey across the league. The Clippers will be his fifth team in the last five years after spending his first 11 seasons with the Thunder. He’s gone from All-Star to scapegoat since then, but one can see how he makes sense with the Clippers.
The Clippers were missing a point guard beyond Terance Mann. While they added Hyland, George struggled to say something positive about his new teammate in a recent interview.
Westbrook also provides rim pressure that the Clippers have lacked. He takes 31 percent of his shots within three feet of the basket, a higher percentage than any Clipper guard besides Mann. Westbrook’s poor three-point shooting hurt the Lakers, but the Clippers have plenty of players who can make threes. If anything, they might be too perimeter-oriented, and Westbrook provides an alternative.
That’s not to say this move is perfect. Arguably, the Clippers need a true point guard less due to the ball-handling skills of George and Leonard. At age 34, Westbrook may be worse than Gordon or Norman Powell but still take their minutes.
With the Lakers, Westbrook had a massive, $40M+ contract. It’s tough to sit a player with such a financial commitment, especially with limited alternatives on the roster.
With the Clippers, there’s no such obligation from the team. Utah bought out Westbrook’s deal, so the Clippers are only on the hook for the minimum. If it doesn’t work with Westbrook, there’s nothing keeping coach Tyronn Lue from simply playing someone else.
The hope is that George and Westbrook can recapture the magic they had in OKC. At the very least, Westbrook will get to play in his home city without chants of “Westbrick” from the crowd, and unlike the Lakers, Westbrook can be very confident he’s making the playoffs.
