What Russell Westbrook brings to the Lakers’ playmaker-starved offense

The Lakers have traded for Washington Wizards superstar Russell Westbrook — and what looks to be three second-round draft picks — after the player reportedly requested for the deal to go through. It will be a homecoming for the Los Angeles native who also played at UCLA, a basketball life coming full circle for the NBA’s triple-double king.

That being said, Westbrook brings a very specific set of skills — and flaws — that make his fit on the team a very intriguing one. Silver Screen and Roll’s own Alex Regla wrote about key strengths that Russell brings to the Lakers, and I added to that foundation in the following video that touches on five ways Westbrook improves the Lakers’ offense by both addressing key deficiencies, and optimizing current strengths:

There’s a clear rationale for how Westbrook can help this Lakers team on the offensive end, especially when you consider the replacements the Lakers brought in for the key players involved in the deal (Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Kyle Kuzma).

However, as I mentioned in the introduction, Russell also has some glaring flaws in his game. There are specific ways the Lakers may be able to circumvent these weaknesses, but that’s for next week’s video. Stay tuned.

Dr. Rajpal Brar, DPT has a doctorate in physical therapy from Northern Arizona University, and runs his own in-person and online sports medicine and performance business, 3CB Performance, in West LA and Valencia, CA in which he further combines his movement expertise and fitness training. He also works at a hospital — giving him experience with patients in the immediate healthcare setting and neurological patients (post stroke, post brain injury) — and has been practicing for 4 years. Brar is additionally training at UCLA’s mindful awareness research center (MARC), has a background in youth basketball coaching and analyzes the Lakers from a medical and skills perspective for Silver Screen and Roll and on his own YouTube Channel. You can follow him on Twitter at @3cbPerformance.