Russell Westbrook deserved better. For 18 seasons, Westbrook never cheated the game. He played every game as if it was his last. And yet, he was heavily criticized by fans and the media.

Westbrook, 37, announced his retirement on social media in a video narrated by Oscar-winning actor Michael B. Jordan.

Westbrook may not have won an NBA championship ring, but he will be remembered as one of the most electric and inspirational players of our generation. At the end of the day, what defined his basketball career was his effort and energy. He played the game at 100 mph. Sometimes he played too fast.

His candle was always lit. He didn’t need to flip a switch because his switch was always on. He was a human power generator, pumping energy into an arena. He was highly entertaining. As a fan, that’s all we ask of our athletes. Compete at the highest level and provide moments of joy. Russ was a one-man show.

Was he flawed? Sure he was. Did he turn the ball over too many times? Sure he did. Did he take too many ill-advised shots? Sure he did.

But you cannot question his heart, his toughness, and his competitiveness.

Westbrook finished his NBA career as a two-time league scoring champion and led the league in assists three times. He was a nine-time All-Star, a two-time All-Star Game MVP, and the MVP in 2017. He retires as the NBA’s all-time leader in triple-doubles. For someone who supposedly couldn’t shoot and was tagged as a ball hog, Westbrook scored 27,000 points and more than 10,000 assists, placing him in an extremely small historical group.

Russ was one of the most athletically gifted players to play in the NBA. He put together a historic 2016-17 season when he became the first player since Oscar Robertson to average a triple-double for an entire season. He set a record with 42 triple-doubles, one more than Robertson’s old mark set in 1962.

During his MVP season in 2017, Westbrook averaged 31.6 points per game, 10.7 rebounds, and 10.4 assists. He carried the undermanned Oklahoma City Thunder into the playoffs as a sixth seed in the ultra-competitive Western Conference, a year after Kevin Durant left OKC to join the Golden State Warriors.

Durant had a complicated relationship with Westbrook, but the two patched things up and KD posted a touching tribute on social media following Westbrook’s retirement, highlighting his former OKC teammate’s leadership style and his impact on the court.

“He led by example, and once the lights were bright, he let everything out and experienced pure freedom,” Durant said. “It was inspiring as his teammate, and everywhere I went, I saw it inspire people from all walks of life. The crazy thing is, he didn’t say much, he just showed up.”

Westbrook definitely showed up and showed out. You might knock him down a few times, but he kept coming.

In a 2015 game against the Portland Blazers, Westbrook got kneed in the head by a teammate and fractured his cheekbone. He stayed in the game with a visible dent and finished with 40 points, 13 rebounds, and 11 assists. Brodie had surgery and missed one game. In his next game, wearing a protective mask, he dropped 49 points, grabbed 15 rebounds, and had 10 assists.

Westbrook had as many detractors as admirers. Westbrook joked that “Spalding” was his best friend. Westbrook rubbed people the wrong way with his abrasive personality. But what drove a lot of basketball pundits completely batty was Westbrook’s shot selection and recklessness.

In his short stint with the L.A. Lakers, he was reportedly called a “vampire” for sucking the life out of the team. He got blamed for everything that went wrong. Many Lakers fans pinned losses on him.

“If you don’t respect and admire Russell Westbrook, there’s something wrong with you,” Charles Barkley said. “I’ve never seen a player give maximum effort every single night.”

Here’s a question Lakers fans who dissed Russ: how can you hate on a guy who grew up idolizing the Lakers. He attended Leuzinger High School in Lawndale. He went to UCLA and made two Final Four appearances. He represented L.A. He never forgot his L.A. roots. If he was such a bad guy, then why do all his teammates love him? You’d be hard-pressed to find a Westbrook teammate who didn’t like him.

Lakers guard Austin Reaves was one of countless Westbrook teammates who had nothing but love for him. Reaves, who was then a role player with the Lakers, recalled getting COVID during a road trip and was forced to isolate in a hotel room for a few days. Reaves said it was Westbrook who checked on him and asked him if he needed anything.

That was Russ. A good guy and a great teammate.

***

Since 1956, when the first NBA regular season MVP award was handed out, six most valuable players finished their careers without winning a championship and two are still in pursuit of that elusive chip.

Twelve of the 15 players with multiple MVPs led their teams to at least one NBA championship. The only three multiple MVP winners — Karl Malone, Steve Nash — don’t have a championship. Malone reached the NBA Finals twice, but lost each time to Jordan’s Chicago Bulls. Nash never made it to the NBA Finals.

Here are the ringless NBA MVPs: Charles Barkley (1993), Malone (1997, 1999), Allen Iverson (2001), Steve Nash (2005, 2006), Derrick Rose (2011), Russell Westbrook (2017), James Harden (2018), Joel Embiid (2023).

Charles Barkley (1993 MVP)

Barkley is one of the most beloved sports figures of all-time. He had a big personality to match his big physical presence on the court. He was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers in 1984 and quickly became a fan favorite in Philly. After being traded to Phoenix in 1992, Barkley enjoyed his best season as he captured the 1993 MVP and led the high-powered Suns to the best record in the league and advanced to the NBA Finals. But Barkley’s Suns ended up losing to Michael Jordan’s Bulls in the ’93 Finals, and Barkley never got back to The Finals. He did manage to win two Olympic gold medals, and his career was validated by being selected to the 1992 Dream Team. The Round Mound of Rebound finished with more than 23,000 points and 12,000 rebounds. He was a unique player who wasn’t defined by one position. Barkley has said many times publicly that not winning a title shouldn’t and didn’t define his basketball career. Hard to argue with Sir Charles.

Karl Malone (1997, 1999 MVP)

The Mailman finished his career as the second-leading scorer in history (36,928). He made the All-NBA first team 11 times and made the All-Defensive team three times. He was named to the NBA’s top 50 greatest players list and widely regarded as one of the best power forwards. With the help of longtime teammate and fellow Hall of Famer John Stockton, The Mailman delivered two MVPs as a member of the Utah Jazz but couldn’t deliver a title to Salt Lake City. Malone led the Jazz to appearances in the NBA Finals in 1997 and 1998. Both times his teams lost to Michael Jordan’s Bulls in six games. In 2003-04 Malone joined Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal in L.A., hoping to make one final push for a ring. But it wasn’t meant to be, as Malone had an injury-plagued season and the Lakers went down to the Detroit Pistons in five games in The Finals.

Allen Iverson (2001 MVP)

Much like Westbrook, Iverson was a fearless competitor who played with reckless abandon. A.I. answered the call several times throughout his 13-year career, putting together an MVP season in 2001 and leading the Sixers to the NBA Finals. But Iverson ran into Goliath in the form of Shaq and the Lakers, and the Sixers were defeated in five games. That was the closest A.I. got to playing for a title. After stints in Detroit, Denver and Memphis (extremely short stint there), Iverson rejoined the Sixers but did not finish the season. He took his talents to Turkey, but that lasted about as long as A.I.’s career as a hip-hop artist. Iverson desperately wanted to finish his career in the NBA, but no team took the bait. Iverson will go down in history as a polarizing figure who gave us great highlights and one memorable soundbite. Yes, we’re talking about practice!

Steve Nash (2005, 2006 MVP)

Nash helped revolutionize the game with how he manipulated the pick-and-roll. Point guards today use the “Nash dribble” coming off picks. He reached the conference finals four times but fell short each time — three times with the Phoenix Suns and once with the Dallas Mavericks. He teamed up with Dirk Nowitzki to lead the Mavs to the 2003 Western Conference finals, losing to eventual champion San Antonio. He captured his first regular-season MVP in 2005, leading the Suns to the NBA’s best record. But the Spurs got in the way again, bouncing Nash and a loaded Suns squad that also featured Amare Stoudemire, Shawn Marion, and Joe Johnson in five games. Nash won his second MVP award in 2006, but was eliminated by Dirk’s Mavs. MVP voters may have made a mistake by giving Nash the MVP in 2006. Nash probably didn’t deserve to win it over Kobe Bryant, who had one of the best statistical seasons and delivered the signature moment of the year when he scored 81 points against Toronto. Nash maxed out in Phoenix and was never able to recapture that magic he had with coach Mike D’Antoni.

Derrick Rose (2011 MVP)

Rose’s once promising career was derailed by injuries. D-Rose was bitten by the injury bug several times and was never the same. We’ll never know how good Rose could have been had he not gotten hurt. During his time in Chicago, Rose’s Bulls teams had a nice nucleus and were strong title contenders. One year after becoming the youngest MVP in league history, a devastating ACL injury in the 2012 playoffs dramatically cut down Rose’s game. Despite flashes of his old self, Rose never returned to his MVP form. He lost the burst that made him such a tough cover, and his jump shot never got good enough to keep defenses from sagging back. All the physical gifts that made him special were no longer there. Rose bounced around the league for the next eight years, playing in New York, Cleveland, Minnesota, Detroit, and Memphis before retiring in 2024 at age 35.

James Harden (2018 MVP)

Harden came into his own when he arrived in Houston after leaving Oklahoma City. Harden went from a 17-point scorer to a 27-point scorer. He went from Sixth Man to MVP. His 2017-18 season was almost like a video game. He led the league in scoring (30.4) and was the runaway leader in free throw attempts and free throws made. No one draws fouls (or tricks referees) better than Harden. In fact, he does it so well, and so often, league officials changed the way they call games. He gets to the line 11 times a game. For an 87% free-throw shooter, that’s 10 points in the bank. Harden is so clever and crafty that he has referees completely fooled. Harden does have other skills aside from gimmicks and tricks. He has a dependable step-back jumper to create space for his 3-ball, and he had straight-line drives going to his strong hand. Once the NBA cracked down on non-basketball moves to bait referees into calling fouls, Harden’s numbers have significantly dipped.

Joel Embiid (2023 MVP)

Embiid, who had long lobbied for the award, earned his first NBA MVP trophy in 2023, beating out Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic. Embiid has been through the wringer in terms of working through various injuries, and his durability has been questioned. He pieced together a healthy season for the Philadelphia 76ers in 2022-23 as he averaged 33.1 points to win his second straight scoring title, 10.2 rebounds and tied a career high with 4.2 assists per game. “It’s been a long time coming. A lot of hard work. I’ve been through a lot. I’m not just talking about basketball. I’m talking about my life. My story. Where I come from. How I got here and what it took for me to be here,” said the big man from Cameroon. He’s the second winner from Africa, joining Hakeem Olajuwon, the Nigerian who won for Houston in 1994.

Joel Huerto is editor and publisher of OneManFastBreak.net. He hosts a sports podcast on YouTube @onemanfastbreak1.

One day after James Harden was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers, Harden aired out his dirty laundry and threw a few people under the bus on his way out of Philadelphia.

Harden told the media that the role he was given on the 76ers left him playing “on a leash.” He argued that he was not a system player. “I am a system,” he boasted.

Harden isn’t completely wrong about his “system” argument. Systems are built around NBA superstars. The problem with his claim is he is no longer an elite player. He’s still an above-average starter in the league, but the days when he was an All-NBA performer or MVP candidate are long gone. In terms of the superstar hierarchy in Clipper Land, Harden falls behind Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.

Harden is now 34. He’s past his prime. He is playing for his fourth team in three years. He is five full years removed from his 2018 MVP season. If the season ended today, his 17 points per game would be the lowest of his career since 2012 (his last season with Oklahoma City). Seems like we have a systemic problem for The Beard.

Meanwhile, his understudy in Philly, Tyrese Maxey, has been unleashed and thriving under head coach Nick Nurse’s system. The Sixers are playing at a much faster pace, which wasn’t the case when Harden was running point because he preferred to walk the ball up the court.

L.A. started the season 3-1 and were among the league leaders in offensive and defensive efficiency. After acquiring Harden, the Clips lost their lost their rhythm for a stretch and dipped to 30th in offensive efficiency and 24th in defensive efficiency. Since Dec. 1, the Clippers have regained their footing and have become a top-five offensive team. Harden has blended well with Leonard and George in the starting lineup, and the Clippers have climbed back in the top tier in the conference.

Despite their recent success, the Clippers remain vulnerable against teams with length and size up front. During their annuals Grammys road trip, the Clips’ lone blemish in an otherwise successful 6-1 roadie was a loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cavs are solid in the backline, anchored by 6-11 center Jarrett Allen and first-team all-defensive forward-center Evan Mobley. Allen and Mobley combined for 30 points and 26 rebounds.

In the Battle of L.A. series, the Clippers had all sorts of problems dealing with L.A. Lakers big man Anthony Davis in their three losses against their intracity rivals. Davis punished the Clippers’ small ball unit offensively and defensively, taking away driving lanes and making them one dimensional.

Harden’s ability to attack the paint is supposed to be the key to free up some of the congestion on offense. But Harden was part of the problem. He finished with 23 points in the 116-112 loss to the Lakers on Feb. 28, but 12 of them came in the second quarter. He was MIA during the fourth quarter when the Lakers mounted a furious rally that erased a 21-point deficit. When asked by reporters what went wrong, Harden said, “everything.”

“It’s on all of us,” said a frustrated Harden, who was just 2-for-9 from behind the 3-point line and committed four turnovers in the third loss to the Lakers.

“We are in this together, you know what I mean? It’s frustrating,” Harden said. “You can’t be up [21] points at home and give away a win, especially this time of the year. It’s that simple.”

The Lakers loss capped a brutal February for the Clips.

In their high-profile showdown with the Minnesota Timberwolves at Crypto.com Arena on Feb. 12, the Clips were punished by the Timberwolves’ twin towers Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns in a 121-100 beatdown. A week later, the Clippers were routed by Oklahoma City 129-107 coming out of the All-Star break. It marked their second straight defeat to a team ahead of them in the standings.

Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue is well aware of the team’s shortcomings against bigger squads. His solution? Go small.

“I thought our physicality wasn’t there. They played better than we did. They outreached us, outplayed us and everything,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said.

Lue admitted that the size of the T-Wolves affected the Clippers, especially Kawhi and PG as both struggled to get to their basket and couldn’t make enough shots from the perimeter to pull Gobert and Towns out of the paint.

“When we’re not making quick decisions and playing the right way, they will make you look bad. I thought their length bothered us. They’re the No. 1 defensive team for a reason.”

When asked how to combat the size and length issue, Lue said “going small” is their best option.

Going small has been Lue’s modus operandi since he took over the job. He prefers a small ball lineup to finish games, usually playing Harden, Leonard, George with Norm Powell and Russell Westbrook or Amir Coffey. The small lineup normally works against most teams, but not against teams with quality bigs.

The best way to counter size is to push the pace and don’t allow defenses to get set. Unfortunately for the Clips, the man charged with initiating the offense prefers to walk it up.

“You can’t walk around offensively. You have to get to your next action. Things we have worked on the last two years. We just have to do a better job in doing that. If you don’t do that and you don’t do it hard, you’ll get beat every night,” Lue said earlier in the season during the Clippers’ six-game losing streak.

Lue refused to put all the blame on Harden during the team’s awkward period. But he did engage in some “dialogue” with his veteran guard about how they could make things work.

“He just needs to understand what we need from him. Him being aggressive, not looking at the bench. Just do your thing,” Lue said. “If you do it too much we’ll let you know. He’s a special player. When you come into a new situation it is tough to come in and try to take it over. With PG, Kawhi and Russ, we’ve had these conversations. We just have to make sure to make James as comfortable as possible because he is going to be huge for our team on what we’re trying to do.”

The Clippers’ season turned around in late November when Westbrook reportedly approached Lue and suggested that he’d be willing to come off the bench to allow Harden more time to gel with Kawhi and PG13 on the first unit. Since Westbrook’s selfless move, the Clippers were able to right the ship and now find themselves in the thick of the race for the best record in the West.

But just when the Clippers were finding their groove and surfacing as serious contenders, the injury bug bit them at the worst possible time. Westbrook fractured his left hand on March 1 and Kawhi left the game against the Timberwolves on March 12 with back spasms. Down two of their studs, the Clippers blew a 22-point lead against the Wolves and ended up getting demolished 118-100. Harden was MIA yet again, finishing with just 12 points on 4-of-10 shooting with four turnovers.

The Harden experiment is still a work in progress. There are days when the Clippers look like word beaters and then there are games when they look like they’re headed for an early playoff exit. The Clips will secure a playoff berth for sure, but the regular season is not where this team will be judged. The final grade will come in the postseason where Harden often failed to deliver.

Harden, who is now playing for his fourth team in three years, acknowledged his playoff shortcomings in a 2022 interview with Fox Sports, but didn’t put all the blame on himself. “I’ve had a few bad games in close-out games. Not all of them have been bad,” he said. “Quite frankly, a lot of the times our team wasn’t good enough to compete for championships, if you want to be honest. There’s only so much I can do.”

He could only do “so much” in a couple of high-profile meltdowns in the postseason.

Against the Golden State Warriors in the 2018 Western Conference finals, Harden had a hand in the Houston Rockets’ disastrous cold streak as the team missed 27 straight 3-point shots. Harden went 2-for-13 from behind the arc.

Against the Boston Celtics in 2023 the Eastern Conference semifinals, he teased the Sixers with a tantalizing 42-point performance in Game 4. A few days later, he had a 9-point stinker on 3-for-11 shooting in Game 7 in Boston.

Anything less than a trip to the conference finals would be considered a huge disappointment for L.A. Should the Clippers get bounced from the postseason in first or second round, the question will pivot to re-signing Harden. Is owner Steve Ballmer — despite having deep pockets — willing to give Harden the big payday he coveted in Philly?

It’s a million-dollar question for a billionaire owner.

The Los Angeles Lakers lost 10 of their first 12 games in the 2022-23 NBA season and the vast majority of Lakers fans and some members of the basketball media are losing it.

It’s a rough time for the Purple and Gold. The team is struggling on the court, the value of crypto (team plays at Crypto.com Arena) is eroding faster than Twitter stock, and the hated Boston Celtics are getting close to winning a championship. Lakers Nation is in total panic mode, looking anyone to blame. Much of their venom has been directed at guard Russell Westbrook and general manager Rob Pelinka. They want Westbrook traded and they want Pelinka fired.

Even basketball beat writers appear to going the extra mile to pin the losses on easy targets — and bagging on Westbrook is a low-hanging fruit. Some basketball pundits actually thought the Lakers are a playoff contender if they can find a taker for Westbrook and his $47 million expiring contract. NBA insider Mark Medina said he expected the Lakers to make a deal for Westbrook before training camp starts. Medina was definitely surprised to see Westbrook at the start of training camp.

L.A. Times writer Dan Woike seems to be enamored with the Westbrook narrative as well, finding all sorts of ways to shed light on the former NBA MVP’s shortcomings. In one of Woike’s recent stories, he focused on a couple of bad Westbrook turnovers (and they were bad) in a short stretch in the second quarter that allowed the Sacramento Kings to cut the Lakers lead in half. Maybe the three baskets the Lakers gave up in the first quarter were the sole reason why the Kings won 120-114.

Westbrook’s poor shooting and high turnovers are well documented and well established. It’s like saying Will Smith slapping Chris Rock on stage at the Oscars was a terrible moment. What’s not so obvious to average basketball observers is the two biggest issues for the Lakers this season are their two leaders: LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

Davis has been unreliable and unavailable for much of his NBA career. Outside of an out-of-body experience inside the Disney World bubble in 2020, Davis keeps disappointing. AD has yet to play more than 62 games since becoming a Laker. Even when he’s on the court he’s MIA in crucial moments. At times, AD looks tired and timid. Whenever he hits the deck, he grimaces in pain while holding some body part. He’ll go through stretches in the second half where he won’t even take a shot. There have been too many fourth quarters when Davis went completely silent. It took a heart-to-heart conversation with first-year Lakers coach Darvin Ham to light a fire under AD.

“Had a real good conversation with [Davis] after our last game, our last loss [against the Kings],” Ham said following the Lakers’ win over the Nets that snapped a five-game losing streak. “And he just said, ‘I got your back, Coach.’ “

Before the contest at home against the Nets, Ham said it was on Davis to remedy the lack of touches on his own. “Just him demanding the ball,” Ham said. “It starts with that.”

If you’re a member of the NBA’s 75th anniversary team, you shouldn’t have to be told to demand the ball. You tell everyone: scrap whatever we’re running because the next play will go through me.

Can you imagine Kobe Bryant being told to demand the ball? Kobe would have demanded the ball from tip-off.

Davis is obviously not the face-of-the-franchise player the Lakers thought he could be. Anyone who has played basketball at any level knows that if the game is close, winning and losing comes down to your best against the opponent’s best. When the opposing team goes on a run, your best player takes charge and stops the bleeding. Regardless of what defense the opposing team runs at you, if you believe you’re the best player on the court, it won’t matter. You’re determined to score, defend, or grab a rebound and there is nothing you can do to stop it. Sometimes being The Man requires something extraordinary, like scoring 40 points and grabbing 15 rebounds or scoring consecutive baskets down the the stretch to close the show. That’s what a No. 1 guy does. AD is capable of doing extraordinary things. How badly does he want to be the best? That question remains unanswered.

The other big problem is a bit more complicated.

LeBron is a basketball living legend. He may not be the same player he was three seasons ago when he led the Lakers to a title, but he still has plenty of pull on and off the court. However, Father Time is winning and LeBron’s hour glass is close to empty. He’s clearly no longer the best player in the game. He’s no longer an MVP candidate. He’s no longer the incredible physical force who can pick up an entire franchise and carry it over the finish line. He’s still got some flicker in his flame, but the fire burns out a lot quicker now and his body is breaking down more frequently.

LeBron turns 38 in December. After 20 super seasons, he finally looks human. Despite the obvious decline in his game, the Lakers gave LeBron a two-year contract extension that runs through 2025. By that time he’ll be 40. But the Lakers understand cutting off the LeBron cord isn’t that simple. They need him to be the marquee outside the arena. They need him to be the box office superstar fans are still willing to pay to watch even though he’s past his prime.

LeBron’s shooting numbers this season are way down compared to his career standards. His 23% 3-point percentage is one of the worst in the entire league. He’s taking more shots (averaging 21.9 field goal attempts), which hijacks the offense and disrupts flow. When LeBron commented earlier in the season that the Lakers were “not a team constructed of great shooting,” he was probably including himself in that group of non-shooters.

And if you think LeBron’s offensive numbers are below the line, his defense is even worse. He’s guarding shadows.

LeBron has two big boxes to check before riding off into the sunset. He wants to break Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time scoring record and he wants to play with his eldest son, Bronny, in the NBA. And the Lakers might be willing to give him one of those wishes.

The other underlying Lakers problem is their relationship with Klutch Sports Group. The sports agency founded by LeBron’s close friend Rich Paul employs half the Lakers roster. Owner Jeanie Buss, Pelinka and the Lakers’ top brass need to carefully navigate this relationship because any misstep could result in losing Klutch clients in the future.

The reality is the Lakers are now rebuilding. Hiring Ham was a clear message that the Lakers are prioritizing developing players and acquiring younger talent. Pelinka was abundantly clear that he’s not going to give up future draft picks just to get rid of Westbrook. “You have one shot to make a trade with multiple picks, so if you make that trade it has to be the right one,” Pelinka said during media day. “So we’re being very thoughtful around the decisions on when and how to use draft capital in a way that can improve our roster.”

LeBron and Davis led the Lakers to a championship in the 2020 bubble season. And that’s no small feat. It cemented their Lakers legacies. But winning a championship in 2023 with LeBron and AD is just a pipe dream. LeBron and AD are simply not good enough to save the Lakers from having another disappointing season. It’s time for the Lakers to start focusing on the franchise’s own timeline instead of bending the knee to LeBron’s timeline.

First impression is the best impression. For his first press conference as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, Darvin Ham hit it out of the park. Now, all he has to do is execute the plan.

Ham was introduced as the 28th head coach of the Lakers on June 6. The 48-year-old former NBA player and longtime assistant with Mike Budenholzer said all the right things while entertaining the mostly L.A.-based basketball media. He addressed the two biggest issues facing the franchise: 1) what to do with Russell Westbrook, 2) how to get the best out of injury-prone Anthony Davis.

If Lakers fans want a hint on what a Darvin Ham-led Lakers team will look like, think Milwaukee Bucks minus the grit.

Lakers Nation should be more than satisfied with Ham’s answers. Westbrook appears to be satisfied with the hiring. He attended Ham’s introductory presser at the Lakers training facility in El Segundo and nodded in approval when Ham talked about what he thinks of the former league MVP, who was the target of ridicule and criticism and got unfairly blamed for the Lakers’ 33-49 season.

“Don’t get it messed up. Russ is one of the best players our league has ever seen and there is still a ton left in that tank,” Ham said in his news conference televised on Spectrum SportsNet.

He continued: “I don’t know why people tend to try to write him off. I’m gonna approach him like I do every player I’ve ever encountered. We’re going to talk about our running habits with the ball, without the ball, and again, the team. The rhythm of the team and trying to establish a rhythm with LeBron, Russ, AD, and again, share the load. Defensively and offensively. Defensively is where you’re gonna see us make our biggest leaps and bounds. We have to commit to the defensive side of the of the ball or we don’t have a chance to do anything. The offense won’t even matter if we don’t get stops.”

Ham basically confirmed that the Lakers intend to bring back Westbrook despite reports — and fan urging — that they’re trading him. Ham said he has already had private conversations with Westbrook and they both agreed on how what it’ll take to make this partnership work.

“Russ and I had some really, really great one-on-one convos, man, and the biggest word I think that came out of that, those discussions, was sacrifice,” Ham said. “I’m going to expect him to be the same tenacious, high-energy player that he’s been all his entire career. A lot of now may have him without the ball in his hand. Most of it now may have it on the defensive end. But, again, we have to sacrifice. There’s no achieving anything without all parties sharing the load, sacrificing instead of one-on-one.”

Ham came from a Bucks system that prioritized defense. He had the opportunity to work with former defensive player of the year Giannis Antetokounmpo and second-team all-defensive guard Jrue Holiday. Ham would love nothing more than to recreate the Holiday defensive model in Westbrook.

Ham told ESPN’s Malika Andrews that he wants Westbrook to be a “pit bull” on the defensive end and channel most of his boundless energy on that end of the floor. “I want [Russ] to set a tone defensively for our team,” Ham said. “I want him to get back to guarding at a championship level.”

Ham won a title in 2004 as a member of the Detroit Pistons, and he was Budenholzer’s lead assisant during the Bucks’ title run in 2021. Ham’s championship pedigree makes him a qualified authority figure when it comes to building a winner, and he clearly identifies defense as the top priority to get the Lakers back to being title contenders.

Last season, the Lakers fell to the bottom of the league in terms of defensive efficiency (ranked 21st out of 30 teams), which is a stark contrast to where they were two seasons ago when they were a top-five defense in their championship run inside the Disney World bubble in 2020.

L.A. underwent a major facelift in 2021-22 and lost its identity. The team greatly missed defensive stalwarts Alex Caruso, Danny Green, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. The addition of offensive-minded players Malik Monk, Carmelo Anthony, and Kendrick Nunn didn’t pan out. Monk and Anthony provided plenty of firepower on offense, but defense wasn’t their forte. Nunn collected $5 million for sitting on the bench. He missed the entire 2021-22 season due to a bone bruise in his knee.

Ham is tasked with rebuilding the oldest roster in the league while developing some of the younger players who showed promise like Austin Reaves, an undrafted rookie who worked his way into the rotation.

“My goal is continue with the development of our younger players, and make those guys comfortable,” Ham said. “Everything has to be a team effort. If there’s mistakes made I have to be able to coach [James, Anthony Davis, and Russell Westbrook] like I do the rest of the roster. We have a saying, facts over feelings. Once you see the film and it’s a fact that you missed your assignment, then that has to be pointed out. If I can’t point that out to one of our big three, then the last man or someone in our rotation won’t take what we’re doing seriously. It has to be consistent across the board.”

Getting the role players to fall in line might be the easiest part of the job. The hard part will be convincing his three highest-paid players to buy into what he’s selling.

“LeBron is going to be LeBron, Russ is going to be Russ, but we need consistency out of Anthony Davis,” Ham said. “We need him to be healthy, we need him to be in a good mental space, and we need him to be as consistent as possible, back to playing that championship-type basketball.”

Keeping Davis healthy and asking for consistency might be Ham’s greatest challenge. It’ll be more difficult than getting Westbrook to play defense or managing LeBron’s workload.

Bill Belichick, the six-time Super Bowl champion head coach of the New England Patriots, famously said that “dependability is more important than ability.” There’s no question about Davis’ ability. Few in the league have his combination of size and skill. But he has proven on multiple occasions that he can’t stay healthy for an entire season.

Davis has played in only 76 games the past two seasons due to an assortment of injures — from his shoulder to his knee to his ankle. And the last time he played in more than 70 games was in 2018. How can the Lakers lean on Davis if he’s not available to play?

Ham knows that the Lakers can’t get back to being a championship-level team without Davis. He says the four-time All-NBA defender is the “key” to how the Lakers want to play on defense.

“We’ve all seen what can happen when he’s healthy, when he’s playing at a high level, when he’s in a good rhythm,” Ham said of Davis. “We saw it in the bubble. His skillset, size, versatility, defensive acumen, his relentlessness. His ability to give multiple efforts defensively is key. It’s going to be the foundation of the type of standard we set within the Darvin Ham era.”

Ham plans to implement a four-out, one-in style on offense. It’s a similar approach the Bucks ran with Antetokounmpo as the primary option. Giannis and AD are both capable of sliding to the center spot, but they’re not the same type of player. Giannis brings the physicality to the party. He overwhelms opponents with his size and strength, often bullying his way to the basket. Davis prefers to stay above the dotted line and likes to shoot over his man instead of playing through his man. The Lakers could alter the offense a bit to fit Davis’ preferred style, but the team may have to look for a legit 5-man to play alongside Davis to keep him from having to do all the dirty work.

When a reporter asked Ham if he felt pressure taking on such a high-profile gig on a high-profile team that’s obsessed about raising championship banners, he had a great response.

“I grew up in Saginaw, Michigan. I was shot in the face by accident, April 5, 1988,” Ham said. “You go through something like that, it is going to do one of two things: It’s gonna make you fearful or fearless. It made me fearless. I don’t feel no pressure. It’s basketball.”

As the losses kept piling up, Russell Westbrook kept saying the Los Angeles Lakers needed to figure things out in order to right the ship. The hope was the Lakers would eventually figure it out and straighten out a disjointed 2021-22 season. Well, any hopes of competing for an 18th championship banner have evaporated.

After 79 games and 39 changes to the starting lineup, the Lakers simply couldn’t figure it out.

The Lakers were officially eliminated from the playoffs on April 5 as the NBA-leading Phoenix Suns put them out of their misery with a thorough beatdown that dropped L.A. to 11th place in the Western Conference and out of the play-in tournament. The Lakers have all spring and summer to figure out how to clean up the mess they’ve created. General manager Rob Pelinka said it was championship or bust. Well, the season was a complete bust and you can bet on a major shakeup this offseason.

“Extremely disappointed,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said after the game. “Disappointed for our fan base. Disappointed for the Buss family.”

Vogel’s job is on the line. There were reports circulating online hours before the Lakers-Suns game that Doc Rivers and Quin Snyder could be the Lakers head coach. Vogel hasn’t even been fired yet and the vultures were already flying over his head.

“This was a season where we just didn’t get it done,” Carmelo Anthony said. Carmelo was one of four Lakers — along with Anthony Davis, LeBron James, and Westbrook — who were named to the NBA’s diamond anniversary team. It’s a distinction reserved for the best and brightest players who shaped basketball in the last 75 years. You would think that having four players on the league’s all-time team would be able to figure things out. Apparently not.

“Our goal was to win a championship,” Davis said in his postgame news conference after putting up 21 points and 13 rebounds in the loss against the Suns.

“Feel like we had the pieces, but injuries got in the way of that,” he continued. “And that was the difference in the season. I think even though we lost games where all of us was on the floor — me, Bron, Russ — I think we’re three great players, but we would have figured it out if we logged more minutes together. But we weren’t able to do that, which makes it tough to be able to compete for a championship when your three best players haven’t logged enough minutes together.”

As much as we’d like to agree with Davis that a healthy Lakers squad would have altered the season, he’s delusional. Davis, James, and Westbrook were on the court together for only 21 games. In those 21 games, the Lakers went 11-10. Let’s extrapolate that for an entire season and it only puts the Lakers right around the .500 mark in terms of wins and losses. So, Davis’ argument that all the Lakers needed was a healthy squad and everything would have been fine misses the mark.

The truth of the matter is, the Lakers were just not that good. The roster was flawed and the team’s most decorated All-Stars simply didn’t get the job done. You can blame the front office, you can blame the coaching staff. But ultimately, it was AD, LeBron, Russ, and Melo who had their fingerprints on what Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke called the most disappointing season in Lakers history. Plaschke said the season was so disappointing, it was comical.

We could revisit the litany of things that went wrong during the season, but instead of listing all of them here a Lakers fan compiled a “One Shining Moment” video on Twitter that summed up the entire season.

The expectations were too unrealistic for a team built around a brittle center who has never proven he can stay healthy for an entire season, an aging all-time great superstar who is finally showing a decline in his overall game after 19 seasons, and a former MVP point guard — who was used to having the ball in his hands — who had trouble fitting in.

Pinning the makeup of a disastrous roster on Lakers management and LeBron’s sports agency, Klutch Sports, would be fair. With the full backing of Klutch Sports, the Lakers’ top brass traded young standouts Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart, and multiple unprotected first-round picks to acquire Anthony Davis in 2019. Two years later, the Lakers OK’d another costly blockbuster deal that brought Westbrook in the fold. The Lakers sacrificed the future to maximize LeBron’s prime years, and they got one championship (2020) out of it. Now, the future looks extremely bleak.

The easiest target in the blame game is Lakers coach Vogel. His inability to find the right rotation will ultimately cost him his job. Vogel kept tinkering with the roster all the way up to game No. 79. He played big lineups, small lineups, old lineups, and young lineups. None of them worked.

Vogel tried to implement the system that worked during the Lakers’ championship inside the Disney World bubble, but the problem was he didn’t have the proper personnel to run it. Vogel kept searching for the right combination, but he never found it.

Vogel certainly couldn’t find the correct formula for LeBron and Westbrook. Both players struggled coexisting and Vogel wasn’t able to help either one out. Vogel also yo-yoed with Dwight Howard’s role. For some odd reason, Vogel never fully bought into having a set role for Howard. Even at 36, Howard showed flashes that he can still be an effective center. Howard appeared in only 58 games, started in 25 of them, and averaged a career-low 16 minutes per game. A lot of the Lakers’ deficiencies were on the defensive end, and not getting Howard more involved — especially in the fourth quarter when the Lakers need stops — was mind-boggling. Vogel kept rolling out a small-ball lineup that saw LeBron at center and Carmelo at the big forward. Teams went to town against Bron and Melo like a weekend brunch at a Las Vegas buffet. Everyone feasted against the Lakers.

Firing Vogel could be the first domino to fall this offseason, but a new head coach won’t fix the three biggest problems on the team: Davis, LeBron, and Westbrook. The Lakers’ supposedly three best players and three highest-paid employees are also the franchise’s three heaviest anchors that will keep the team stuck in the port through next season.

Westbrook has one year remaining on his massive contract, and he will most likely opt-in on $47 million. LeBron will be 38 years old next year and entering his 20th NBA season. He has missed a big chunk of the 2021-22 season due to various injuries, and that won’t change as he puts another year on his aging body. And then there’s Davis. Bill Belichick famously said availability is better than ability. In the last two seasons, Davis has missed close to 80 games. That’s equivalent to a full NBA season. And when he tries to play through an injury, Davis looks like a guy held together with duct tape.

Davis likes to play at his own pace and prefers to work in an open space. When he’s forced to be more aggressive, he ends up hurting himself.

When rapper Snoop Dogg, a longtime Lakers fan, poked fun at Davis saying he was hurt more often than Mary J. Blige, Davis shot back and vowed to prove all his critics wrong by working himself into the best shape of his life. Instead of proving his critics wrong, Davis proved his critics right as he once again played half the season (40 games) and had his worst shooting percentage (18%) from 3-point range.

Fixing the Lakers won’t be easy. It’s not like they can hit one button to restart everything. The roster definitely needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. They need to get younger. LeBron and Westbrook are most likely sticking around. LeBron’s business empire is firmly entrenched in Los Angeles, and his son Bronny won’t be draft-eligible yet. Westbrook’s contract will be nearly impossible to move, so the team will have to eat his $47 million player option once he opts in. As for Davis, the Lakers front office needs to seriously consider trading him while he still has value.

The Lakers are going to have to put aside their hopes of raising an 18th championship banner because this rebuilding process will take a good amount of time to be completed.

A surreal moment occurred at the end of the Lakers-Bucks game at Crypto.com Arena. Russell Westbrook was seen giving words of encouragement to teammates Anthony Davis and LeBron James, who were both seated and looking dejected.

During his postgame news conference on Spectrum SportsNet, Westbrook said he told Davis and James to shake off the tough night and wished he could have helped them. “Unfortunately, I wasn’t in the game to be able to help them,” said the 33-year-old NBA veteran and 2017 MVP.

“That’s why I came here. To help them out,” he added. “So unfortunately I haven’t been able to do that for them, but that’s not my call. I can be there as a leader and as a voice and whatever is needed for the team and that’s what I’ll do until, you know, my number or whatever is called during that time.”

It was a strange scene because if anyone should be sitting on the bench looking dejected, it would be Westbrook. He was benched late in the game for a second consecutive game after another dismal performance. Westbrook shot 3-for-11 from the field in only 26 minutes of court time. He was lifted in favor of Talen Horton-Tucker and sat the entire fourth quarter.

Lakers head coach Frank Vogel explained to Lakers Nation that sitting Westbrook was a decision based on team needs and that the team always comes first: “Russ has accomplished a lot in this league and he’s had some great games and sequences for us here,” Vogel said. “But my job is to win games and when you get in those situations, you have a script of who you believe is gonna be in there and the game will tell you otherwise if a change is needed. We have to be willing to do whatever it takes to get the Lakers a win. Sometimes he’s gonna be in there for that, sometimes he’s not.”

To say that Westbrook’s much-hyped Los Angeles homecoming hasn’t gone according to plan would be an incredible understatement. It has gotten so bad that every Westbrook missed shot or turnover draws boos from Lakers fans. Westbrook has done an admirable job of dismissing the boos, even calling it “a sign of respect.”

“My mindset and how I think about this game and what I’m able to do for this game is not predicated on boos,” said the Hawthorne, Calif., native. He attended Leuzinger High School and was a member of two Final Four teams at UCLA.

“I have a platform that I’m able to use to do other things that God has blessed me to be able to do, and I will continue to do those things, regardless of if people boo for me, cheer for me, cuss me out, call me names. It doesn’t really matter.”

Westbrook’s struggles encapsulate what is happening with the 2021-22 Lakers squad, and head coach Frank Vogel is having a hell of a time finding answers. Vogel can’t seem to settle on a starting lineup or regular rotation, juggling the starting lineup at least 28 times. The inconsistency has put a dense fog in front of the team — especially Westbrook.

“You never know when you’re coming in, you never know when you’re coming out. You never know when you’re playing, you never know… a bunch of things. And I’m speaking for me personally, so it’s a difficult process to be able to figure out and create some rhythm and some consistency where we can actually see what we’re able to do as a team, but those decisions are made by him and his coaching staff, and you’ve got to live with it and move on,” Westbrook said.

Brodie firmly believes he doesn’t need to prove his worthiness by hitting benchmarks during a game in order to play in the closing moments of a game.

“I put a lot of work in. I got a lot of respect in this game. I earned the right to be in closing lineups,” he said. “Numbers would say, I don’t have to explain that. Like I said, once again, it ain’t my decision … Unfortunately, just gotta go with it and figure it out the best I can and be there for my teammates as much as I can and make sure I come into work and do my job.”

Has Westbrook earned the right to finish games? Here’s what the numbers say.

Westbrook is averaging 18.3 points per for the Lakers, which is third-best on the team behind only James (29) and Davis (24). Westbrook is second on the team in rebounds (7.8), first in assists (7.6), fourth in steals (1.1). Critics will point to missed assignments on defense and his abysmal shooting from the 3-point line (29%) and the free-throw line (66%) as major anchors to his game, which are legit reasons. But his 43.5% shooting percentage from the field is nearly the same as teammate Carmelo Anthony (43.7%), and Anthony is beloved by the home fans and almost begs him to shoot each time he touches the ball. Steph Curry – widely regarded as the greatest long-range shooter in basketball – is shooting 42% from the field.

How about the turnovers? OK, Westbrook is among the league leaders in turnovers per game (4.1) but so are other All-Stars who handle the ball a ton: James Harden (4.8), Luka Doncic (4.3), Trae Young (4.1). If there’s a major blocker in Westbrook getting crunch-time minutes, it’s his penchant for being loose with the ball. A point guard’s top priority is ball security.

In terms of team offense and defense, the Lakers are among the league leaders in points per game (110), so the offense is not the biggest problem. The big problem lies on the defensive end, where the Lakers rank near the bottom (112). Only three teams are giving up more points per game in the entire NBA: Charlotte, Sacramento, Houston.

Even though Westbrook is publicly saying he’s “comfortable” being booed by L.A. fans, he is human. It has to be eating him up. As a lifelong Lakers fan who attended the championship parades in the early 2000s and idolized Kobe Bryant, this season has been one giant downer for Brodie. And the fan outrage is having a negative impact on him.

Lakers fans have unfairly put much of the blame on the team’s disappointing season on Westbrook. It’s easy to point a finger at Westbrook because his miscues are highlighted and magnified in the media. The memes are relentless and the trolling are downright vicious.

But Westbrook isn’t the only reason why the Lakers are closer to being a lottery team. LeBron and Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka bear a lot of the responsibility, too. The roster was poorly constructed from the beginning, mixing and matching old veterans with a bunch of journeyman JAGs. There are only four forwards on the roster (LeBron, Stanley Johnson, Trevor Ariza, Carmelo Anthony) and too many average guards. The mere fact that Stanley Johnson – who signed three 10-day contracts before earning a full deal – is part of the regular rotation speaks volumes on how thin the Lakers are on the wings.

“The most important part is that I continue to use my gift to play basketball, and use that platform to help people around the world. That’s all I can do. That’s it,” Westbrook said.

He continued: “As it pertains to the team, the team is not getting booed. So you’re asking about me. That’s all I can respond about is myself, and what I’m able to do to be able to mentally stay in the right place and enjoy being at home, enjoy having the opportunity to be able to see my kids, take them to school every morning. See my family, my mom, my dad, and my close friends every day, and I don’t take that part for granted. Basketball is a short time of your life. I enjoy it, have fun, and want to compete at the highest level, but it’s not the end-all-be-all. There’s something bigger than basketball that we can do as people, and I understand that, so that’s why I’m comfortable with whatever comes. Cheers, boos, it doesn’t really matter.”

The NBA’s 75th season kicked into high gear with three spectacular plays within a matter of days as the calendar flipped the page to 2022.

Memphis Grizzlies budding superstar Ja Morant is making a strong case for MVP, putting down his signature moment of the 2021-22 season with a two-handed block against the Los Angeles Lakers that defied the laws of physics. Morant has the Grizzlies firmly in the playoff race in the Western Conference and his unbelievable highlights are making Memphis relevant again.

Russell Westbrook’s L.A. homecoming hasn’t gone as well as many Lakers fans have hoped, but the veteran guard delivered a major statement on Jan. 17 MLK Day with an empathic dunk that shook up newly named Crypto.com Arena like an aftershock.

Klay Thompson made his triumphant return to the court on Jan. 9 after a nearly three-year absence due to two devastating injuries. Thompson being able to play basketball again is a minor miracle, considering he suffered an ACL tear during the 2019 NBA Finals and ruptured his Achilles tendon while rehabbing. Thompson scored 17 points in 20 minutes including two 3-pointers, but those numbers pale in comparison to the epic dunk he pulled off that blew the roof off Chase Center and blew up Twitter.

Check out the three best plays of the season, according to OMFB.

Ja goes above the rim for a two-hand block

What may be more impressive than Morant’s block was the way he hustled to get back on defense after turning the ball over. Instead of pouting and complaining to the officials, he sprinted back and erased his initial mistake.

The play started when Morant’s pass was deflected and intercepted by Lakers guard Avery Bradley. Bradley raced down the court and as he went up for a shot against a back-pedaling Desmond Bane, Morant suddenly came into the picture and snuffed the layup by using his 44-inch vertical. We’ve seen chase-down blocks before, many from big guys like LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo. Morant is listed at 6-3. His head went past the rim and nearly hit the backboard.

“That’s probably the best block I’ve ever seen live,” Grizzlies forward-center Jaren Jackson Jr. told ESPN. “Probably the best block I’ve ever seen, period. That was crazy.”

Klay punches return ticket

Klay Thompson admitted is not a dunker. But when an opportunity to throw down a massive rim-rattler presented itself on his first night back after a 31-month layoff, he went for it. Thompson freed himself by crossing over Jarrett Allen above the 3-point line and challenging Lauri Markkanen and Lamar Stevens at the basket.

“I will never forget the reception that Warriors fans gave us, especially myself,” Thompson said about returning to the court after missing the entire 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons.

“Gosh it was fun and it was worth every single day of being away and in that squat rack or on that shuttle board and all the conditioning days. It was worth every single moment,” Thompson added. “I am not going to say equivalent to winning a championship. But man, it was pretty freaking close.”

Thompson’s much-anticipated return is not only good for the Warriors, but it is great for basketball fans.

Westbrook jams on Gobert

Russell Westbrook has been the butt jokes on social media and opposing arenas, and the trolling has gotten so bad the league had to step in. During a road game in Sacramento, the Kings’ DJ kept playing Foreigner’s “Cold As Ice” each time Westbrook missed a shot. Even Westbrook thought it was funny. But he got the message.

Westbrook got some form of revenge on his trolls by authoring a vicious dunk over three-time NBA defensive player of the year Rudy Gobert.

Westbrook is now in his 14th year in the league and doesn’t have the same bounce he had when he was racking up triple-doubles during his MVP season in 2017. But Westbrook loves proving people wrong. He has done it his entire basketball career. His dunk over Gobert is another silencer to his critics — for now.

“People don’t just want me going down the paint and seeing if I still have my legs,” Westbrook said. “But I know what I’m capable of and know what I’m capable of doing on the floor. When the moment presented itself with being able to finish strong at the basket, it’s still something I can do.”

Russell Westbrook, LeBron James, and Anthony Davis are tired of hearing the same old question that keeps coming up after every Laker loss. When is this team going to finally find its groove?

Westbrook warned everyone who was listening at the beginning of the season that this version of the Purple and Gold is going to take some time to develop. LeBron essentially said the same thing. Davis keeps preaching patience, that this team can’t be graded until it is fully healthy and have its full complement of players.

But as the NBA’s 2021-22 season crosses its first-quarter mark, the same old issues keep surfacing: lack of effort and commitment on the defensive end, too many turnovers, stagnant offense.

We could point to the well-known fact that this is the oldest roster in the league, with five players over the age of 35 (LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Trevor Ariza, Dwight Howard, Rajon Rondo). But the Lakers’ problems extend beyond having an aging roster. The team’s biggest problems start and end with their highest-paid guys: LeBron, Anthony Davis, Russell Westbrook. These are the three guys the franchise was supposed to lean on. Instead, they are the main reason why the Lakers are struggling. Here are four reasons why the Lakers are in serious trouble.

LeBron’s game slowly declining

Father Time is undefeated. Unless your name is Tom Brady, Father Time will eventually catch up to you. Father Time has caught up to LeBron. The once undisputed king of basketball is starting to show some decline. Injuries have kept him out of games, and when he does play he appears to struggle as the game wears on. LeBron is indeed human. He turns 37 in December. He no longer possesses the same speed and power that made him one of the 75 greatest players to ever play the sport.

LeBron is relying on jumpers more and more. He’s attempting more 3-pointers (nearly eight per game) and he’s making more 3-pointers (over two per game) than he’s ever had in his career. It’s an obvious sign that he can’t turn the corner and consistently get to the rim, and he can’t overpower guys like he used to.

Dallas Cowboys great Michael Irvin perfectly described how a sports legend fades away as he grows old. He said the flame doesn’t completely go out. You get flickers of flame. That’s what we’re seeing with LeBron. You might get flickers here and there, but the fire is no longer consistently burning. He hasn’t been able to stay healthy these last two seasons, and his best games usually occur when he has a week of rest. His offensive game has become predictable and his defense is nowhere near All-Star level. LeBron remains one of the game’s best players, and might still be good enough to make an All-Star team. But his days as the undisputed king of the NBA are gone.

Anthony Davis is not a center

When the Lakers acquired AD from New Orleans in 2019 as part of a blockbuster trade that sent young studs Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, and Josh Hart to the Pelicans, the idea was the 6-foot-10 All-Star was going to be the centerpiece of the post-LeBron Lakers era. AD was supposed to be next in line to join the Lakers’ great history of centers. But there’s one problem. Davis prefers to play power forward.

“I like playing the four. I don’t really like playing the five,” he said back in 2019. We should have listened to him.

Prior to the start of the 2021-22 season, Lakers head coach Frank Vogel spoke to Davis about playing more 5 (center). LeBron and Westbrook essentially said the same thing to him. So, Davis relented and agreed to play more five. Through the first 20 games, Davis has been ineffective playing exclusively at the center spot. He’s shooting 16 percent from 3-point range, the worst in the league. He’s also shooting just 37 percent in the mid-range, which is supposed to be his money shot.

Defense is Davis’ calling card, but if he has a weakness it’s his inability to secure consistently secure defensive rebounds especially in crunch time. Because AD likes to challenge shots, he often finds himself out of position to secure boards, which allows teams to get extra possessions off offensive boards.

There is no doubt Davis is a phenomenal talent and ranks as one of the top-five big men in the game. But if the Lakers are going to win another title, AD has to be big in big moments and play at an MVP level. So far, he has fallen short.

Westbrook-LeBron conundrum

Russell Westbrook stays true to himself. He never wavers. He plays one way. But one thing he is not is he’s not a point guard. He’s a shooting guard. We’ve known this since his days at UCLA when he played alongside Darren Collison. Westbrook is an athletic 2-guard. He’s a gifted athlete, who can play point but not a true point. When he was drafted in 2008, Oklahoma City converted him into a point guard because that’s what the franchise needed. It worked at OKC because Kevin Durant took the pressure off Westbrook, and James Harden played point to close out games. The Thunder was never able to replace Harden when he left OKC, leaving Westbrook as the main playmaker and taking on more responsibility than he should have.

When the Lakers acquired Westbrook in a multiplayer deal with the Washington Wizards, the idea was to have Westbrook play off the ball and defer to LeBron, who will run the point. That plan immediately went out the door when both guys couldn’t quite get in sync during the preseason. Lakers coach Frank Vogel offered up a solution. Let’s stagger their minutes.

OK, Frank. How’s that working out?

Instead of giving James and Westbrook more time to figure out how to play together, Vogel and the Lakers coaching staff are playing them together even less.

It’s obvious that Westbrook is more comfortable and free when LeBron is not in the game. His best games as a Laker have come in games James missed. The Lakers also play at a much faster pace when Westbrook has the ball in his hands. The problem with having the ball in Westbrook’s hands is he will turn it over a ton. He is among the league leaders in turnovers.

Westbrook, LeBron, and AD have all said it’ll take time for this Laker team to gel, using the excuse of this being a new group. But the Wizards, the Lakers’ trading partner in the Westbrook deal, have just as many new pieces they’re trying to fit in and they don’t seem to be as discombobulated.

Imbalanced roster

The most glaring issue the Lakers are dealing with is the roster imbalance. It is guard-heavy.

L.A. has two centers (Dwight Howard and DeAndre Jordan) and four forwards (LeBron, Davis, Carmelo Anthony, Trevor Ariza). The rest of the roster is full of small guards. Talen Horton-Tucker and rookie Austin Reaves were big guards in college. But on the Lakers, they are forced to play on the wing. Vogel has struggled the find the right combination, inserting and reinserting guys in the starting lineup and dropping guys in the rotation. He’s tried a big lineup. He’s tried a small lineup. He even tried putting LeBron at the five. None have worked. It’s difficult to find balance when you have a gluttony of guards and not enough forwards.

Vogel believes in his system. It worked before in 2020 when the Lakers won a championship inside the Disney World bubble. But the 2020 Laker squad was a big team. That championship unit had long, athletic centers (Howard, JaVale McGee), versatile forwards (LeBron, AD, Kyle Kuzma, Markief Morris), and big defensive-minded guards who can switch to a wing position if needed (Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Danny Green, Alex Caruso, THT).

Part of the reason the Lakers have lost their defensive identity under Vogel is due to the simple fact that they were unable to replace the big guards who protected their perimeter defense. KCP, Green, and Caruso are elite defenders and did things on the defensive end that usually went unnoticed. A year ago, the Lakers had one of the best defensive ratings in the NBA. This season, they are closer to the bottom.

Vogel can change the starting lineup or juggle the rotation as many times as he wants. The answers are not in this current group.

Russell Westbrook is now the NBA’s triple-double king. (Getty Images)

Before Russell Westbrook came along, Oscar Robertson’s 181 career triple-doubles seemed unattainable. Even Magic Johnson and Jason Kidd both said no one will ever break The Big O’s record. But someone forgot to tell that to Westbrook.

Washington Wizards guard Russell Westbrook made history on May 10, 2021, when he produced the 182nd triple-double of his career in just 940 games. Robertson’s 181 triple-double record stood for 47 years, and many thought it was going to stand the test of time much like Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game. Westbrook finished with 28 points, 13 rebounds, 21 assists in a 125-124 loss to the Atlanta Hawks at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. Westbrook had an opportunity to cap his historic night with a game-winning shot, but his 3-pointer with under three seconds left grazed the rim and bounced off to the side.

The loss takes some of the zest off Westbrook’s record-setting performance, but it doesn’t take away what the 32-year-old former UCLA standout has accomplished throughout his basketball journey. He won an MVP in 2017 after posting the first triple-double season in league history since Robertson did it in 1962. Westbrook has averaged a triple-double in four of the last five years, and he will lead the league in assists for the third time. Not bad for a natural shooting guard who learned how to play point guard when he got to the NBA.

“What he’s done and how he’s done it, he didn’t just inch his way to it, he exploded the chart. And not only did he explode it, he said, ‘If you don’t think that was good let me come back and do it again the next year,’ ” two-time NBA champion and current NBA TV analyst Isiah Thomas said.

“Let’s put some respect on Westbrook,” Thomas added.

Teammates respect Russell Westbrook. You’ll never hear any of his current or former teammates say anything bad about him (expect maybe Kevin Durant, but that’s a whole different topic). Opponents respect him. Fans love him. The only people who pour water on his greatness are the basketball TV, radio, online pundits who are into advanced statistics. They don’t like the turnovers and the awful shooting. Those are legit claims. But from a pure basketball standout, Brodie brings it every single night. He has never cheated the game. He plays every game like it’s gonna be his last. You have to respect that.

“It was always a misconception of Russ on how he is as a teammate, how he is as a person, how he responds to coaches. Total opposite,” Wizards shooting guard Bradley Beal said on ESPN’s “First Take.” “He’s all about the team, he’s all about winning, he’s all about getting better. And he’s all about pulling his teammates up, trying to get the best out of everybody. That’s something that has helped me. Seeing his mentality, his approach to the game night in and night out. He’s an MVP. He’s a first-ballot Hall of Famer.”

You can argue that a player could be labeled as “selfish” for chasing scoring titles instead of NBA titles, but there is no case or argument to be made when it comes to assists. An assist is a coach’s favorite statistic. It means the ball doesn’t stick and a player’s action ultimately led to a teammate scoring a basket. When Magic and John Stockton and Steve Nash led the league in assists, they were celebrated. They were labeled unselfish, making others better. When Russ Westbrook leads the league in assists, it is seen as padding stats.

Westbrook has been relentlessly pursuing the triple-double record for the past few years now, and some in the media suggested he was padding his stats. Russ’ response to the whole “stat-padding” claim was simple. “People that’s talking or saying whatever they need to say, they should try doing it and see how hard it is,” he said. And he’s right. If grabbing 20 rebounds or dishing out 20 assists were so easy, then why don’t we see it more. LeBron James ranks second in triple-doubles among active NBA players and he’s nowhere near Westbrook.

Westbrook checks a lot of boxes. The only box that’s unchecked is a championship. He came close in 2012 when his OKC Thunder squad with James Harden and Durant reached the NBA Finals, but lost to LeBron and the Miami Heat in five games. But not having a championship ring shouldn’t take away what Westbrook has done in a career that has been doubted from the start.

“Can’t take anything away from him,” said Wizards coach Scott Brooks, who coached Westbrook in Oklahoma City for seven seasons before reuniting with him in D.C. following an offseason trade.

“He’s a winner,” Brooks said. “[He’s] making the basketball and the non-basketball world a better place. Not a lot of guys have had the impact that he’s had, both on and off the court. It’s pretty phenomenal.”

Brodie wasn’t highly recruited out of high school and when he arrived at UCLA he had to earn his way to the starting lineup. He proved the doubters wrong with two Final Four appearances and shot up the NBA draft boards following impressive workouts. He landed as the fourth overall pick in the draft by Seattle — which later moved to Oklahoma City. Westbrook, Durant, Harden turned OKC into a Western Conference powerhouse before Harden left for Houston and KD left for Golden State. Westbrook single-handedly kept the Thunder relevant for three seasons before being traded to Houston in 2019, teaming up with Harden once again. The Harden-Westbrook duo could only get the Rockets to the second round of the 2020 playoffs in the Orlando bubble.

There were whispers of Brodie being “done” after a slow start to his Wizards season. He was obviously hurt, but he didn’t complain. Once he finally got healthy, the old Westbrook returned. Washington was left for dead during the halfway point of the season and was practically slotted in the lottery before the season turned around dramatically. Now, Brodie and Beal have the Wizards competing for a spot in the play-in series.

“They came from way out of it to where they’re in the thick of this thing. It’s mind-blowing,” Sam Mitchell said.

James Harden and Russell Westbrook each won MVP, but zero NBA titles. (Getty Images)

James Harden is one of the most gifted scorers in NBA history, combining great skill with a touch of crafty. He averaged 36 points and 7.5 assists per game during the 2018-19 season. He powered the Rockets to 65 wins in 2018 and 53 wins in 2019.

Harden’s Rockets came extremely close to knocking off the Golden State Warriors in the 2018 playoffs when the Rockets took the Warriors to Game 7, but eventually lost a heartbreaker at home. The following season, the Rockets lost to the Warriors again in the postseason, this time in six games.

Russell Westbrook is one of the most athletically gifted players to play in the NBA. He is a triple-double machine. He put together a historic 2016-17 season when he became the first player since Oscar Robertson to average a triple-double for an entire season.

Westbrook set a new NBA record with 42 triple-doubles, one more than Robertson’s old mark set in 1962. The Oklahoma City Thunder guard averaged 31.6 points per game, 10.7 rebounds, and 10.4 assists. He carried the undermanned Thunder into the playoffs as a sixth seed in the ultra-competitive Western Conference, a year after All-Star forward Kevin Durant left OKC to join the Golden State Warriors.

Harden and Westbrook have one thing in common. They’re both ringless superstars. Their playoff failures put them on a list they’d rather be left off.

Harden and Westbrook are supremely talented players who are worth the price of admission. But they are also flawed. They are both iso-centric. Tough to play against, but even tougher to play with. They both take the air out of the ball and wear down when it matters most. Both have very high usage rates and unable to sustain their pace for an entire postseason. Their signature moments happen during the regular season. It is hard to find a signature playoff moment for Harden and Westbrook. You often find both of them walking off the court disappointed after enduring another painful playoff exit.

Since 1956 when the first NBA regular season MVP award was handed out, four most valuable players finished their careers without winning the ultimate prize while four are still in pursuit of that elusive chip.

Here are the seven NBA MVPs without a championship ring:

Charles Barkley failed to win a title in Philly and Phoenix. (Getty Images)

Charles Barkley (MVP in 1993)
Barkley is one of the most beloved sports figures of all-time. He had a big personality to match his big physical presence on the court. He was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers in 1984 and quickly became a fan favorite in Philly. After being traded to Phoenix in 1992, Barkley enjoyed his best season as he captured the 1993 MVP and led the high-powered Suns to the best record in the league and advanced to the NBA Finals. But Barkley’s Suns ended up losing to Michael Jordan’s Bulls in the ’93 Finals, and Barkley never got back to The Finals. He did manage to win two Olympic gold medals and his career was validated by being selected to the 1992 Dream Team. The Round Mound of Rebound finished with more than 23,000 points and 12,000 rebounds. He was a unique player who wasn’t defined by one position. Barkley has said many times publicly that not winning a title shouldn’t and didn’t define his basketball career. Hard to argue with Sir Charles.

Karl Malone came up short in the 1997 and 1998 NBA Finals. (Icon Sportswire)

Karl Malone (MVP in 1997 and 1999)
With the help of his good friend John Stockton, The Mailman delivered two MVPs as a member of the Utah Jazz. Unfortunately, Stockton and Malone couldn’t deliver a title to Salt Lake City. Malone led the Jazz to appearances in the NBA Finals in 1997 and 1998. Both times his teams lost to Jordan’s Bulls (that was a common theme during the Jordan era) in six games. In 2003-04 Malone joined Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal in L.A., hoping to make one final push for a ring. But it wasn’t meant to be as Malone had an injury-plagued season and the Lakers went down to the Detroit Pistons in five games in The Finals. Malone finished his career as the second-leading scorer in history (36,928). He made the All-NBA first team 11 times and made the All-Defensive team three times. He’s widely regarded as one of the greatest power forwards and part of the NBA’s 50 greatest players.

Allen Iverson lost to the Lakers in the 2001 NBA Finals. (Getty Images)

Allen Iverson (MVP in 2001)
When we’re talking about Iverson, we’re talking about a fearless competitor who played with reckless abandon. A.I. answered the call several times throughout his 13-year career, putting together a MVP season in 2001 and leading the Sixers to the NBA Finals. But Iverson ran into Goliath in the form of Shaq and the Lakers, and the Sixers were defeated in five games. That was the closest A.I. got to playing for a title. After stints in Detroit, Denver and Memphis (extremely short stint there), Iverson rejoined the Sixers but did not finish the season. He took his talents to Turkey, but that lasted about as long as A.I.’s career as a hip-hop artist. Iverson desperately wanted to finish his career in the NBA, but no team took the bait. Iverson will go down in history as a polarizing figure who gave us great highlights and one memorable soundbite. Yes, we’re talking about practice!

Steve Nash never reached the NBA Finals. (Getty Images)

Steve Nash (MVP in 2005 and 2006)
Nash is considered one of the best point guards in basketball history, but he never reached the NBA Finals during his 18 seasons in the league. He led the Phoenix Suns three times to the conference finals and once with the Dallas Mavericks. He teamed up with Dirk Nowitzki to lead the Mavs to the 2003 Western Conference finals, losing to eventual champion San Antonio. He captured his first regular-season MVP in 2005, leading the Suns to the NBA’s best record. But the Spurs got in the way again, bouncing Nash and a loaded Suns squad that also featured Amare Stoudemire, Shawn Marion, and Joe Johnson in the conference finals in five games. Nash won his second MVP award in 2006, but was eliminated by the Mavericks led by his buddy Dirk, who removed himself from the ringless fraternity in 2011. Voters may have made a mistake by giving Nash the MVP in 2006. Nash didn’t deserve to win it over Kobe Bryant, who had one of the best statistical seasons and delivered the signature moment of the year when he scored 81 points against Toronto. Nash maxed out in Phoenix and was never able to recapture that magic he had with coach Mike D’Antoni.

Derrick Rose grimaces in pain after suffering a knee injury in the 2012 playoffs. (AP)

Derrick Rose (MVP in 2011)
It’s almost unfair to put Rose on this list because he has been bitten by the injury bug several times. But, the fact of the matter is, D-Rose has an MVP trophy sitting at his home but doesn’t own a championship ring nor has he set foot in an NBA Finals game. During his time in Chicago, Rose’s Bulls squad had a very nice nucleus and were strong contenders for the title. A devastating ACL injury in the 2012 playoffs pumped the brakes on Rose’s career. Despite flashes of his old self, Rose never returned to his MVP form. He lost the burst that made him such a tough cover, and his jump shot never got good enough to keep defenses from sagging back. Rose has since left Chicago and all the physical gifts that made him so special are no longer there. Rose bounced around the league for the next five seasons, playing in New York, Cleveland, Minnesota and Detroit.

Russell Westbrook (MVP in 2017)
Westbrook is one of the most polarizing stars in the league. He has about as many detractors as admirers, and that list includes current players. Some people were bothered by Westbrook’s “Spalding” comment, referring to the ball being his only friend when’s on the court. Westbrook also rubs a lot of folks the wrong way with his abrasive personality. But what drives a lot of basketball pundits completely batty is Westbrook’s shot selection and recklessness. He can shoot you back in the game, but he can easily shoot you out of the game. Critics point to a playoff loss to Houston in 2017 when Westbrook scored 51 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, and dished out 13 assists. Despite posting a triple-double, Westbrook was blamed for the loss after making just 17 of 43 shots, including 4-for-18 in the fourth quarter. But Westbrook’s physical attributes aren’t enough. He struggles shooting 3-pointers and takes ill-timed shots late in ballgames.

James Harden (MVP in 2018)
The Beard came into his own when he left Oklahoma City for Houston. Harden went from a 17-point scorer to a 27-point scorer. He went from 6th Man contender to MVP winner. His 2017-18 season was almost like a video game. He led the league in scoring (30.4) and was the runaway leader in free throw attempts and free throws made. No one draws more fouls than Harden. In fact, he does it so well and so often league officials are changing the way they call games. He gets to the line 11 times a game. For an 87 percent free throw shooter, that’s 10 points in the bank. Harden is so clever and crafty he has referees completely fooled. But Harden’s game is more than just gimmick moves. He has a devastating step-back jumper to create space for his 3-ball and if you give him room to drive he’ll collapse a defense and can either finish at the rim or throw the lob pass. About the only thing left unchecked on Harden’s basketball resume is a championship.

Joel Huerto is the editor and publisher of OneManFastBreak.net. Follow him on Twitter @onemanfastbreak.