The Los Angeles Lakers are in a bad place to start the 2022-23 season as they have yet to capture their first win.
The Lakers were blasted on the road by the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday night, dropping them to 0-4. Analysts have already begun to rule them out of playoff contention, and for good reason as they have not been able to provide much evidence of things turning around.
Russell Westbrook was ruled out of the contest against Denver due to a hamstring injury and head coach Darvin Ham addressed it in his pregame availability, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“I don’t want to jump to conclusions. It’s something we’re just handling day to day. It got irritated so were just taking precautions.”
Following the loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday, Ham acknowledged he and Westbrook talked about his injury and wanted to play it safe this early in the year:
“Yeah, we talked about it over the course of the couple days and just trying to figure out how to approach it, what would be the best strategy to use. We all came to the conclusion that it’s early in the season and there’s no reason to stretch it out or put him in a vulnerable position and just take it day to day. We all decided that he’d be out today.”
Westbrook’s hamstring injury first occurred in their preseason game against the Sacramento Kings when he came off the bench. Westbrook subbed in midway through the first and played a few minutes before being ruled out.
Interestingly enough, the guard wasn’t forced to miss time as he was able to suit up for the season opener against the Golden State Warriors. Like his teammates, Westbrook hasn’t shot well from the field and some poor decision-making forced Ham’s hand as there were reports he could start coming off the bench.
For now, the team is hopeful he can suit up on Friday against the Minnesota Timberwolves and it’ll be interesting to see if he is back in the starting lineup.
Los Angeles getting creative in Russell Westbrook trade proposals
Regardless of how much blame Westbrook deserves for the Lakers’ poor start, the fact of the matter is that trading him is necessary in order to bring back multiple impact players. So far, a deal has yet to materialize though the front office has reportedly been getting creative when it comes to Westbrook trade proposals.
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