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Darvin Ham On Lakers’ Struggles Last Season: “It Wasn’t All Russell Westbrook’s Fault”

The Los Angeles Lakers had expectations of being the last team standing after trading for Russell Westbrook prior to the start of the season, but the grand Westbrook experiment turned out to be a disaster as the Lakers ended up missing the NBA playoffs.

Injuries to LeBron James and Anthony Davis, as well as the age of their role players certainly played a part to their disastrous NBA campaign. However, a number of fans are convinced that Westbrook is the one to blame for last season’s mess.

There is no doubt that Westbrook went through a complication season with the Lakers. But contrary to the popular opinion, new Lakers head coach Darvin Ham believes that the 33-year old all-around point guard was not the sole reason the team performed so poorly last season. 

Per The Ringer:

We’ve all had years where we could have done better, had better performances or circumstances didn’t quite go our way. And I think just everyone knows what type of year the Lakers went through last year. And it wasn’t all Russell Westbrook’s fault.

When you go back and look at the games missed by LeBron James at different segments add a different set. Those three (Westbrook, James and Anthony Davis) only got to play a total of 22 games together. You’re talking about an 82-game season. And so just the different various energy injuries with people within the lineup that were dependent upon within the rotation.

Russ having to carry a load and you’re trying to go sign, G League guys, you got COVID, people being put in the protocol because of the COVID. So for all of this to be heaped on Russ, it’s kind of unfair, in a sense and unfair reality, to be quite honest.