There are countless reasons why the 2021-22 Lakers season was such a failure. But whether one blames the roster construction, Frank Vogel’s inability to adapt to said roster, or Russell Westbrook’s resistance to change or even play well… things all seem to trace back to that fateful transaction that saw Russ come to the team.
However, if you dig in a little further, the terrible state that the Lakers find themselves in seems to not only stem from acquiring Russ, but from the philosophy the front office (and LeBron James) adopted over the last several years in the lead-up to that trade: They wanted to surround LeBron with another playmaker to ease his usage as he enters the final years of his career… something they’ve been doing for basically his entire Lakers tenure up to this point.