Russell Westbrook refused to go out sad with LA Clippers, salvaging his NBA career

How Russell Westbrook has fit in with the Los Angeles Clippers

The Clippers have been a perfect landing spot for Russell Westbrook for a number of reasons, but chief among them may be that this roster enables Russ to do what he does best. The Clips have needed a true downhill point guard ever since they landed their superstar duo of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. While their star power has led them to some pretty meaningful postseason runs even without a single true table-setter, nabbing one of Russ’s caliber significantly raises their ceiling.

Since swapping sides in LA, Westbrook has been able to provide for the Clippers exactly what the organization was looking for when they brought on John Wall. The Clips have no shortage of high-level role players who can space the floor, but they’ve always lacked an advanced playmaker to collapse the defense and find their snipers open behind the arc. Both the Klaw and PG13 are plenty capable of drawing multiple defenders, but they also lack the floor recognition and slashing necessary to truly maximize the shooters and rim-runners around them.

In the 21 games he played for the Clippers to end the 2022-23 regular season, Russ was able to maintain his nearly 16-point scoring average and six assists per game that he put up with the Lakers, except he was also able to drastically increase his efficiency due to the better supporting cast and system around him. He went from shooting 42 percent from the field and 30 percent from deep with the Lakers to 49 and 36 percent marks respectively with the Clippers.

While he was able to eventually adapt his game to come off of the bench for the Lakers — and put up a decent dark-horse Sixth Man of the Year candidacy in that time — the Clippers had the right pieces necessary to enable him to start. Adding another top offensive option in Russ helped LA to stay afloat even with Leonard and George missing a combined 12 of 21 games in which Westbrook was available for the Clips, as Russ ended his regular season with an 11-10 record with his new squad.

His career renaissance in the regular season has been plenty impressive on its own, but the way he was able to elevate his game for the playoffs has only made his fit with the Clippers all the more perfect.