Why Westbrook Went Wrong. Plus, Are the Lakers Holding Themselves Accountable? Guest: Dan Woike
Media Type |
audio
Categories Via RSS |
Basketball
Sports
Publication Date |
Apr 20, 2022
Episode Duration |
00:31:17

The Lakers have a tremendous amount of stuff to figure out this offseason - what to do with Russell Westbrook, what coach to replace Frank Vogel with, are LeBron James and Anthony Davis still a championship foundation, etc. - and a lot of it depends on developing a sense of self-awareness around where stuff went wrong. Until that happens, Jeanie Buss Rob Pelinka, Kurt/Linda Rambis and everyone else making decisions will likely flail about. Maybe they get it right. But then again, maybe they don't.

Joining the show to discuss it all is Dan Woike, Lakers beat writer at the LA Times.

We start with more insight into The Russ Experience. Woike seemed to get along, relatively speaking, with Westbrook through the season. Is that actually the case? What was it like to cover him, and why did everything go wrong? Clearly, he says, this was bad casting. Wrong dude for the wrong role he'd be expected to play.

From there, it's a look at Rob Pelinka, the front office, and the idea of accountability. A day after OKC GM Sam Presti spoke for over two hours to local media in his exit interview, it was a reminder that Pelinka barely cracked 20 minutes, this on the day the Lakers fired Frank Vogel and hours after this dumpster fire of a season ended. Fair to say he left the dais with some hands still raised in the audience. Was he being accountable? Do they really know what they're accountable for?

All of this, of course, is relevant to the coaching search. How the Lakers approach this stuff matters. The image they project to the outside world matters. Particularly if they want to chase one of the big names on the coaching market, should one come available (like Quin Snyder, Doc Rivers or Nick Nurse, for example). How much damage have they done to themselves?

PART 1 of 2 with Dan!

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky

SEGMENT 1: The Westbrook Experience. How psychology and fit conspired to ruin something before it started in LA. The guy, it turns out, was way more complex than the Lakers knew what to do with.

SEGMENT 2: How accountable is Pelinka holding himself? Does the org have a real idea what that means?

SEGMENT 3: The roots of the coaching search. What led to Vogel's dismissal? What are the Lakers looking for from here?

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