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#3 Defense
Russell Westbrook has not been the best defender in the league at any point, but he has been adequate in stretches. Last season, Westbrook's defense was a casualty of a poor collective performance from the Wizards' defense.
Westbrook's Defensive Rating was his worst since his rookie year, at 110, but his team ranked only 19th in the entire NBA. The LA Lakers, on their side, had the best Defensive Rating in the 2020-21 NBA season, and the defense was often spearheaded by perimeter defenders such as Alex Caruso and Dennis Schroder, who are now gone.
Russell Westbrook has never been at the top of the Defensive Rating list in the NBA, but he's been in the Top 15 twice in his career and once in the Top 10. He's never made an All-Defensive team in his career, but providing the LA Lakers a good enough defensive effort would be big for the team next year.
#2 Free-throw shooting
An NBA point guard is usually a great free-throw shooter, which definitely helps in close situations, when said player is controlling the offense and could go to the free-throw line and be reliable.
In Russell Westbrook's career, he has a free-throw percentage of 79% in the regular season, which is great. However, he was at 82% from his rookie year (2008-09) until the 2016-17 season.
In the last four years, Russell Westbrook has made 70% of his free throws. He made a career-low 65% from the charity stripe last season, and his free-throw shooting struggles seem to continue. Whether he can return to his old FT form or not is yet to be seen, but the LA Lakers would definitely love to see him convert those shots.
The LA Lakers were 28th last season on free-throw shooting, and improving in that area should definitely be one of the team's priorities.
#1 Russell Westbrook is sixth all-time in turnovers with 3,893
Russell Westbrook averages the most career turnovers in NBA history among players with at least 400 games played, with 4.1 per game. He's led the NBA in total turnovers four times throughout his career.
He might be the all-time greatest stat sheet player in league history, but it also includes turnovers. Russell Westbrook has the most career games with at least five turnovers in NBA history, with 375.
Moreover, the LA Lakers already have the player with the most turnovers in league history and the eighth player on the all-time list of turnovers per game (LeBron James. For the upcoming season, the LA Lakers will certainly need to cut down on turnovers, with their two main ball-handlers needing to work on that area of the game to control the ball efficiently.
The LA Lakers were third in turnovers per game last year, and that is definitely not a positive.
Also Read: Who is Russell Westbrook’s wife, Nina Earl?
Guess the Lakers players!
