Former NBA MVP and current Lakers conundrum Russell Westbrook said a few weeks back that his problem was he couldn’t “hit a f’ing shot.” That’s remained largely accurate, despite a few performances sprinkled in around the All-Star break where Westbrook has been above par shooting.
And Westbrook’s superstar teammate LeBron James, while trying to get Westbrook in rhythm, really can’t help him. One, because it’s a problem Westbrook has to fix on his own. And two, because James has never experienced the kind of dip Westbrook is experiencing. James has a career FG% of 50.5% and this year he’s at 52%.
Westbrook has a career FG% of 43.7; this year he’s shooting 43.2%. By that measure, he’s not even having an anomalous shooting year. But it sure seems that way.
James can only offer platitudes to Westbrook about the “just keep trying” method. But James can’t really understand what Westbrook is going through, just as when Magic Johnson briefly coached the Lakers and the Hall-of-Famer simply couldn’t understand why his players didn’t see the openings that were so evident to him. James has likewise never been in a prolonged slump of any kind.
In the latest Lakers loss (to the Dallas Mavericks), a hard-fought game that was hardly an embarrassment, Westbrook was 5-17 from the field. As he said afterwards, what he’s doing just “isn’t good enough.” See Westbrook answering postgame questions below. Westbrook’s role was supposed to be a little bit different, of course. But James, Westbrook, and the Lakers’ other big star Anthony Davis have only played 20 games together so far.
“I need to be better overall. What I’m doing right now isn’t good enough.” Russell Westbrook following a 5-17 shooting night in #Lakers loss to Dallas. pic.twitter.com/mgM55WBaxT
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) March 2, 2022
