The Los Angeles Lakers saw how their big plans turned out to be a complete nightmare after the Russell Westbrook trade didn’t work out as expected. They let go of a big part of their roster to land Russ, who didn’t perform at the best level and earned a lot of criticism from fans and media members.
Now, Westbrook is playing better, but the Lakers are still struggling to find their pace this campaign. After Anthony Davis went down with a right foot injury, the team’s momentum came to an end, and now are trying to win some games without AD and LeBron James.
Westbrook has adapted very well to his bench role, thriving as the team’s sixth man, showing that he can make sacrifices for the team’s sake. Still, when they sent three players to Washington for Brodie, they expected much more than a bench player.
Los Angeles Lakers Had Big Ambitions For LeBron James, Anthony Davis, And Russell Westbrook
Having said that, we’ve learned that the Lakers had huge ambitions when they made a move for the former NBA MVP, trying to ‘recreate’ the success a prior superteam had at the start of the 2010s.
“It also kind of plays into the narrative, for better or worse, that Rob Pelinka loves him some stars,” said ESPN’s Jorge Sedano during a recent podcast appearance, via Lakers Daily. “And the Lakers love them some stars. And Russ is a star, and they felt they had a Big 3. So much so that I heard from a bunch of different people in different camps that they were like, ‘Oh, we’re gonna recreate the Big 3 in Miami.’”
That was really something for the Lakers, but for this team, things hardly ever worked as great as they expected. The Westbrook trade has gotten better this season, but the Purple and Gold aren’t having a good time right now. Following a win against another struggling side like the Miami Heat, perhaps many think the Lakers are back, but the Heat aren’t the best team to define that.
This team showed that they could compete against anybody when healthy, but that’s something they’ve been missing all season long: health.
Source: fadeawayworld
