Nick Crain

11/14/22

Los Angeles Lakers guard Russell Westbrook is one of the most polarizing players in the entire NBA. While he never lacks energy and effort on the floor, his production has been somewhat inconsistent. Early in the 2022-23 season, he was struggling worse than he had in his entire career. Not only was Westbrook playing below expectations, but so were the Lakers. After the first three games of the season, a decision was made that the former MVP would begin to come off the bench. Since then, Westbrook has completely turned his season around. Starter (3 Games): 10.3 PPG | 6.7 RPG | 4.3 APG | 28.9% FG | 8.3% 3PT Bench (7 Games): 18.6 PPG | 5.1 RPG | 7.1 APG | 49.5 FG% | 42.9% 3PT In fact, after just seven games as a reserve, Westbrook is already the frontrunner in Vegas to win the NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award. He’s been much more efficient from the floor and overall been a highly impactful player off the bench leading the second unit. He’s even emerged as one of ProFitX’s top performers over the past week, earning a 94 RTP rating. Westbrook has been the sixth-best performer over this timespan, joining some of the best players in the NBA on this list.   Since joining the Lakers prior to the 2021-22 season, Westbrook’s career as a whole was on the downturn. However, his recent play over the past week or two has clearly started looking more like the old, productive version of himself. Both offensively and defensively, the 33-year-old has increased his production. Moving forward, we project that Westbrook will continue to thrive off the bench. As the leader of the second unit, he’s been a great facilitator and much better scorer. He’s already had two separate 20-point outings since the start of the month.

Sometimes it just takes a mild shakeup, and as of now it appears Westbrook coming off the bench on this Lakers roster is exactly what he needed to get things back on track. If the rest of the roster starts to play up to its standards, Los Angeles still has time to turn things around overall as well.