Lakers finally feeling the downside of Russell Westbrook trade as they fall down

The Los Angeles Lakers can pretty cleanly divide their season into two halves: before the Russell Westbrook trade and after it. The pre-trade Lakers were a 25-30 team teetering on the brink of the lottery. The post-trade Lakers are a 27-16 team that is currently playing the Western Conference finals. The difference is nearly unfathomable, and the results ultimately justify the decision, championship or no. Ask Joel Embiid how hard it is to reach the conference finals. This Lakers season was a success largely because of that single transaction.

That deal sent Westbrook out and brought in D’Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt. For three months, the trio were fan favorites at Los Angeles. Russell swung the Memphis series with his 3-point shooting in Game 4. Vanderbilt’s defense on Ja Morant and later Stephen Curry was essential. Beasley helped keep the offense afloat when LeBron James was hurt in March and April. The starting lineup featuring Vanderbilt, Russell, James, Anthony Davis and Austin Reaves outscored its opponents by 37 points in 77 minutes. In one move, the Lakers seemingly managed build an entire supporting cast around their superstar duo.

That supporting cast has largely been absent from the Western Conference finals. Vanderbilt has played 41 total minutes across the three Laker losses. Beasley hasn’t even seen the court outside of garbage time. And Russell? He’s now shooting 8-of-27 for the series. The Lakers have lost the minutes he has played by 53 points and won the minutes he’s spent on the bench by 31 points.

This Lakers season was defined by the Westbrook trade, and yet it was the players who weren’t involved in it that have largely carried them throughout this postseason. Nearly 82 percent of all Laker points in the Denver series (276 out of 337) have been scored by just four players: LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura. Three of those players have been around since opening night. The fourth was acquired for scraps in January. The two other players getting consistent minutes in this series, Dennis Schroder and Lonnie Walker, were added in the offseason. 

There’s quite a bit of irony in all of that. The Lakers may have already had most of the championship supporting cast they needed even before trading Westbrook … yet they still needed to trade Westbrook for it to emerge. This is especially true of Austin Reaves, who spent most of his shared Westbrook minutes languishing off of the ball but who has emerged as this team’s point guard of the future since the trade. He closed the regular season averaging 16.5 points and five assists per game post-trade. He’s been even better in the postseason. Schroder and Walker have benefitted for the same reasons.

But championship supporting casts need more than ball-handlers. More than anything, they rely on role players that can credibly contribute on both…