Have you ever purchased anything and felt like you weren’t getting your money’s worth? It could be as small as a meal at your local restaurant or as challenging as a college degree. Nobody likes to waste money. Now imagine you are LA Clippers owner Steve Ballmer. You know, that excited bald guy at the floor section of Crypto.com Arena doing his best Mark Cuban impersonation. Well, he spent a then-record $2 billion to purchase the LA Lakers’ little brother in 2014. He paid the maximum dollars for superstars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. The Clippers have the league’s highest payroll at $192 million. Ballmer is spending another $2 billion to move the LA Clippers to their own arena next year. And here comes Russell Westbrook.
Russell Westbrook
Russell Westbrook is like that graduate degree you decide to get in anthropology. If you studied humans and society like that, you would know that humans have no interest in paying you any real money for your anthropology knowledge. You add the degree to all the other money you spent, but you’re still in the same boat. Not a sinking ship, mind you. The Clippers have been a pretty solid team in Ballmer’s tenure. You would hope so with big-time players like Leonard and George on the roster. They have each had injuries for the balance of their Clipper tenure, but the Clippers have some health and momentum this year. Now they also have Russell Westbrook. Ballmer let his $40 million dollar-per-year players convince him that stockpiling the team with LA-bred players is a winning formula.
The Russell Westbrook Motto
“Let Russ be Russ” is the motto used by every team that acquires him, but no one defines it. Is this Russ?
Russ apparently had an issue with a fan doing the “rock the baby” taunt and had him ejected
— NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) March 8, 2023
(Via @DyLyMatsuTran) pic.twitter.com/7anOU4ZvCQ
Is he a surly player that gets front-row fans tossed out of the stadium for an innocent “rock the baby” gesture?
Or maybe Westbrook is the epitome of positivity.
Westbrook is right. It doesn’t matter who wins as long as both teams have fun ? pic.twitter.com/AUQZj3hCWU
— BrickMuse (@BrickMuse) January 9, 2023
Teams can use that locker room tenacity.
A school of thought suggests that Russell Westbrook chose the Clippers partly to stay near his family in LA. He was a Laker teammate of superstar future Hall-of-Famer, and (maybe) the greatest player of all time, LeBron James, but it was a poor fit. As we talked about before the trade deadline, the Clips needed to address their disorganized offense with a floor general. They responded by shipping off two of their only ball handlers (Reggie Jackson and John Wall) and bringing in Westbrook—a poor fit.
MVP
I feel bad discussing Russell Westbrook in this manner. Westbrook has been one of the most exciting players to watch in the league since his 2008 debut. He is an electrifying playmaker with a different energy than anyone else on the court. You get the rebounds, the fast breaks, the assists, and the finishes all in one player. This is why Russell Westbrook is the NBA’s triple-double king, a top 75 NBA player, and a future Hall-of-Famer. He has performed in the NBA Finals. NBA MVP, All-Star Game MVP, and Olympic gold are accolades that pepper his resume.
Not only that, Westbrook is willing to do what is asked of him for the betterment of the team. The Lakers asked him to come off the bench for the first time in his career and he responded by making a case for the Sixth Man of the Year Award. Before that, he was asked to drag a terrible Washington Wizards team to the playoffs. Done. Before that, Westbrook was criticized for his play (and his pay) with the Houston Rockets. However, the Rockets were in the semifinals in his only Houston season. They have been the worst team in the league in the years since he left.
LA Clippers Scoreboard
Let’s look at the Clipper scoreboard, shall we? The Los Angeles Clippers immediately lost five in a row upon picking up Westbrook and making him a starter.
Russell Westbrook’s last 14 games as a starter ? pic.twitter.com/YNrKiM1DBh
— NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) March 3, 2023
His plus/minus numbers were cratering until he started getting benched in the fourth period of games. A drop from the fourth seed to the eighth seed when you finally have a relatively clean bill of health? Even a billionaire should be nervous.
There are promising signs etched in the tea leaves. The LA Clippers won a game after giving up a 51-point third quarter. They then followed it up with a blowout of the Toronto Raptors. Westbrook is starting to find some chemistry with Ivica Zubac. He is finding the big man on many explosive drives to the basket. Russ still sits in the fourth quarter but starts games like he was previously accustomed to. Maybe he’ll find a shooting rhythm to allow him a spot on the fourth-quarter court.
The whispers have been that Ballmer not only wasted money by targeting Russell Westbrook as a late addition pick-up, but he might also be sabotaging a rare healthy postseason for his team. NBA Western Conference teams are stepping over head coach Tyronn Lue and his LA Clippers, but the standings are tight. Hopefully, with the two-game winning streak, they can right this ship by playoff time.
De’Aaron Fox on Russell Westbrook:
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) March 4, 2023
“Everybody loves playing with him, being around him. I love playing against him. I feel like he brings out the best in me… You’ll never hear a bad thing about Russ from anybody in this league that’s played against him or played with him.” pic.twitter.com/goW7MnjHlv
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4 Comments
Mr Joseph, keep giving us your educated knowledge of the NBA & their players. You could not be more right about Russell Westbrook.
Always happy to read your articles.
Thank you!
I was very impressed Hidro reading your article. I also shared it to my friends who are into basketball etc.keep up the good work. Great analysis!
Thank you!