Poor shooting, turnovers and lack of defensive effort have plagued Westbrook’s ongoing season, as the former MVP is struggling to keep up to the way he is known for playing.
Follow Us
NBA analyst and former OKC Thunder teammate of Russell Westbrook, Kendrick Perkins has cast some doubts regarding Westbrook’s future.
Westbrook has not turned out to be the player that the Lakers thought he would be. In 68 games, the former MVP has averaged 17.9 points, 7.4 rebounds and 7 assists and the stats suggest that there is a decline in his game given that he is 33 years old.
His current contract with the Lakers goes on until the end of the 2022-23 season and Perkins sees some worrisome signs. Perkins said, “Here’s the thing about Russell Westbrook. I’m not an insider, but I have a lot of relationships around the league with general managers. And it’s going to come to a point, in probably the next year, when nobody is going to want Russell Westbrook on their roster. And it’s not because of his talent, it’s going to be because ‘Is he gonna be willing to take a lesser role at this point of his career?”
Poor shooting, turnovers and lack of defensive effort have plagued Westbrook’s ongoing season, as the former MVP is struggling to keep up to the way he is known for playing.
Read more: Stephen Curry injured, out indefinitely
Against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Russell Westbrook was targeted relentlessly by Karl-Anthony Towns and Patrick Beverly. Westbrook, for so long was the one to talk trash to opponents but because of his disastrous season, his opponents are not wasting a chance to stick the boot into him.
Perkins shared his love for trash-talking and had this to say about the Timberwolves matchup, “Look, it’s no fun when the rabbit got the gun. Russell Westbrook has been talking trash for years and backing it up. But now we know that him and Patrick Beverly has history. So that same noise that you were talking back in the day, you have to address that now.”
Westbrook is being paid an eye-watering $44.2 million this season and is on course to get $47 million next season. Perkins sees that as a stumbling block if teams from around the country want to sign the star point guard.
“The problem is that he could possibly go from being one of the highest-paid guys in the NBA to when he finishes out the contract next season to actually being on a vet minimum deal. Like this could really happen. Next year’s going to be huge for him. But right now, GMs are really scared to touch Russell Westbrook.”
