The new Lakers head coach was determined to carve out a role for Russell Westbrook on his team. In game two of the regular season the 33-year-old point guard scored just 2 points as he missed all of his field goals.
Most recently he finished with 10 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists in 28 minutes of play in a loss against the Trail Blazers. His former teammate and current analyst Kendrick Perkins was blunt when assessing Westbrook’s situation.
According to him, the relationship between the former NBA MVP and the team is beyond repair and there is no point in trying to improve it.
Perkins thinks that the best course of action at this point is to let Russ go because he is too stubborn to change and adapt to a role where he is not the go-to guy on a team.
“Russ behavior is coming cancerous to the team,” the former NBA champion said on ESPN’s First Take. “And we heard Darvin Ham talk about it. You know what Darvin Ham said about people and their feelings? Because when Russell Westbrook was on the bench he was moping, he was complaining, he was chirping, he was saying little things under his breath.
“Now all of a sudden what do you do now? You know what you do? You send him home! You send him home until you find a place to trade, that somebody’s going to trade for him. Because right now you can’t continue to bring him into that locker room, bring him into that facility because his attitude is going away on, everybody’s going away on, the coaching staff, he’s going away on his teammates, he’s going away on his training staff.”
Perkins also sent a warning that unless Westbrook changes his attitude, he may be out of the league next season.
This season Westbrook is averaging 10.3 points, 6.7 rebounds and 4.3 assists in 28.7 minutes per game for Los Angeles. He has made just 1/12 of his three-pointers.
