Could a new head coach get the best out of Russell Westbrook for the Lakers?

It’s hard to imagine a head coach and point guard being less of a fit with one another Russell Westbrook and Frank Vogel last season. As the Lakers narrow their search down to a handful of finalists and seem set to pick their next head coach in the near future, will that impact what the team does with Westbrook this offseason?

On today’s episode of “Can U Dig It,” a podcast by the Silver Screen & Roll network, Christian and I discuss the latest news in the Lakers head coaching search. The trio of Darvin Ham of the Bucks, Kenny Atkinson of the Warriors and Terry Stotts formerly of the Blazers are the reported finalists that are moving on to the next stage of the interview process.

Juwan Howard isn’t included in that search, but only through his own choice as it appears he would have been the No. 1 option if he was interested.

With Ham considered the frontrunner, could he or any of the other candidates bring anything to the table that would make Russ an effective player with the Lakers next season, particularly as the team seems to at least publicly be operating on the idea that Westbrook will be back? Is there any situation in which Westbrook can be a positive player for the Lakers next year?

if Russ isn’t going to be donning the purple and gold, is there any team that would let Russ be Russ, either? And how much should the Lakers be willing to give up to deal him?

All that is answered and more in this week’s episode.

You can listen to all that and more on our latest episode in the player embedded below, and to make sure you don’t miss a single one moving forward, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude and Christian at @RadRivas. And for a short-form recap pod, check out Lakers Lowdown, in which Anthony Irwin recaps the previous day’s news and gets you ready for the day ahead in LakerLand, every weekday morning on the Silver Screen & Roll Podcast feed.