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How the animosity between Russell Westbrook and Patrick Beverley carries over to the LA Lakers’ locker room will be riveting to watch.
The Lakers just made a move that already puts the embattled Westbrook in an even more uncomfortable situation with Beverley’s acquisition.
LA Times writer Dan Woike was on "The Dan Patrick Show" to share his thoughts on the Lakers’ situation after the trade took place:
“It’s gonna make for a fun employee orientation day, I think. The icebreaker game? I think it’s gonna be really, really awkward around that table.”
Russell Westbrook and Patrick Beverley have been seriously going after each other for close to a decade. It started in 2013 and took off in 2019 when the former MVP told the media that Pat Bev was just tricking them all.
Last season, the former Minnesota Timberwolves guard had his long-awaited revenge after his team beat the LA Lakers. Beverley didn’t hold back and repeatedly called Westbrook “trash” during the game.
Both players have huge egos and even bigger personalities. How the front office and Darvin Ham can convince them to work together is a made-for-Hollywood story.
Woike, though, sees some of the logic behind the LA Lakers’ move to trade Talen Horton-Tucker and Stanley Johnson to the Utah Jazz for Patrick Beverley:
“If they’re both there in some ways, it should be good news for Russell Westbrook. Darvin Ham has talked a lot about, ‘We want Russell to be at the corner and hit threes and to be a defender.’
“That’s not really who Russell Westbrook has ever been in the NBA, it is who Patrick Beverley has been.”
In the end, however, “Russ” could still be the obvious misfit, according to Woike:
“There is maybe a logic to this [that] opens up about Russ not being a miscast or be able to do kind of the things he’s more comfortable with. We saw how that played out last year and that was a struggle. I don’t think this makes Russell Westbrook a more seamless fit for the Lakers.”
Patrick Beverley’s game is a better fit for the LA Lakers than Russell Westbrook's
The LA Lakers’ biggest need this offseason was three-point shooting, which Westbrook has been miserable at for most of his career. “Russ” made only 28.8% of his attempts from beyond the arc last season, a far cry from Patrick Beverley’s 34.3%.
More importantly, Pat Bev has proven to be a more reliable shooter than "Russ" throughout his career. He has made 37.8% of his long-range shots, as opposed to Westbrook’s career 30.5% mark.
Sharing the floor with a ball-dominant player like LeBron James will not be a problem for Beverley either. He’s basically played that role throughout his career and his impact on the game is not determined by the amount of time he has the ball.
Defense is another area where the former Utah Jazz stalwart is a much better player than the LA Lakers’ point guard. Despite Darvin Ham calling Westbrook’s defense championship-caliber, that has rarely been the case. Pat Bev, on the other hand, has made a name for himself by playing hard-nosed defense.
