Russell Westbrook played his first game as a Los Angeles Laker the other night. A preseason game against the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco was the first time the former Thunder and Rockets and Wizards star suited up in the purple and gold.
How did it go? Not great!
Westbrook played only in the first half. He finished with two points, seven rebounds, four assists, and six turnovers on 1-for-7 shooting in 17 minutes. Now, before anyone panics, they should be reminded that preseason games don't really matter that much. They are essentially scrimmage games and used as a way for a squad to shake off the dust and rust and get back into the swing of things. Rarely has a bad preseason preceded a bad regular season.
Westbook's point output wasn't great by any means but that might be because of him being rusty after a long off-season. However, his turnovers are concerning, especially since he has been pretty sloppy with his passing over the last year. In fact, he had the second-most turnovers last season with an average of 4.7 per game.
Yes, Westbrook has a turnover problem and has for a long time. However, there is hope that the excessive TOs from the other night were due to Westbrook actually changing for the better.
It's no surprise that Russell Westbrook is something of a ball hog. Sometimes this works in favor of his team and he's able to create amazing plays. Other times, however, it leads to a limited amount of points and a big target on his back from the opposing team's defense.
Now that he's playing for the Lakers, Westbrook is going to be much more of a facilitator than he ever was before. He is being instructed to not play hero ball. Coach Frank Vogel wants Westbrook to pass a lot more and help produce plays that don't necessarily involve him attempting a wild dunk or deep two-or-three-point shot. That means a lot of assists...and sometimes assists can lead to turnovers.
You can certainly see that Westbrook was attempting to create more assists the other night and that was probably a big factor in the number of turnovers he had. Perhaps this disappointing statistic is just the result of Russell Westbrook attempting to alter the way he usually plays and help his teammates shine. All Lakers fans sure hope so.
Russell Westbrook played his first game as a Los Angeles Laker the other night. A preseason game against the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco was the first time the former Thunder and Rockets and Wizards star suited up in the purple and gold.
How did it go? Not great!
Westbrook played only in the first half. He finished with two points, seven rebounds, four assists, and six turnovers on 1-for-7 shooting in 17 minutes. Now, before anyone panics, they should be reminded that preseason games don't really matter that much. They are essentially scrimmage games and used as a way for a squad to shake off the dust and rust and get back into the swing of things. Rarely has a bad preseason preceded a bad regular season.
Westbook's point output wasn't great by any means but that might be because of him being rusty after a long off-season. However, his turnovers are concerning, especially since he has been pretty sloppy with his passing over the last year. In fact, he had the second-most turnovers last season with an average of 4.7 per game.
Yes, Westbrook has a turnover problem and has for a long time. However, there is hope that the excessive TOs from the other night were due to Westbrook actually changing for the better.
It's no surprise that Russell Westbrook is something of a ball hog. Sometimes this works in favor of his team and he's able to create amazing plays. Other times, however, it leads to a limited amount of points and a big target on his back from the opposing team's defense.
Now that he's playing for the Lakers, Westbrook is going to be much more of a facilitator than he ever was before. He is being instructed to not play hero ball. Coach Frank Vogel wants Westbrook to pass a lot more and help produce plays that don't necessarily involve him attempting a wild dunk or deep two-or-three-point shot. That means a lot of assists...and sometimes assists can lead to turnovers.
You can certainly see that Westbrook was attempting to create more assists the other night and that was probably a big factor in the number of turnovers he had. Perhaps this disappointing statistic is just the result of Russell Westbrook attempting to alter the way he usually plays and help his teammates shine. All Lakers fans sure hope so.
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