Not a great start from the Lakers. What should we expect?

LeBron James’ team started the 22/22 season with five straight losses. And fans are pained to see it happen. And now no major change is in sight, which is even more frustrating.

The team is off to one of its worst starts, the last time this happened was in the 14/15 season when the club finished in penultimate place in the tournament. The next season was no better and the statistics indicate that we should not expect anything good now.

And the hardest part is not for the fans but for Russell Westbrook, who is being criticized by everyone he can. Under a lot of pressure, the point guard is performing abysmally.  Zero utility with poor individual performance.

But now both the organization and all his teammates are trying to support him. Everyone is making sure he just doesn’t get bogged down in it all. We need to make sure he’s doing well around here so there’s a push for normalisation. The whole team is at his side and if he needs help, he can count on his teammates.

For example, in the game against Minnesota, his realization rate was 28.9%, nearly 15 points lower than his career-high. And the three-point conversion rate is very poor, at 8.3%. That is less than 1 in 10.

And now the question is, what will the team do with the player? There are not many options, and a trade is one of them. And the situation is appropriate. The team will be competing for the phenomenal Victor Wembanyam and Scoot Henderson as early as next summer.  

So what to expect?

Of course, there is always room for optimism. You can keep a player and hope the bad streak stops. What’s important is that the player comes to terms with his morale and agrees to come off the bench. The coach is counting on that outcome, as are the club management.

But there is one problem, Russell himself does not want to be a substitute player. During pre-season training, he said that after being transferred to the bench, he was immediately injured. He was unable to prepare for a match the way he did for 14 years and suffered a hamstring injury before the start of the championship. But here it’s more a matter of psychological injury.

But in the last game, the player still appeared on the floor, but not in the starting lineup. The Lakers have claimed that the injury is the problem, but the reality is very different. 

In the future, if the player fails to fit in somehow, they will simply have to get rid of him.