NBA Notebook: Westbrook finds pace as sixth man for Lakers

The NBA season is only a couple weeks old, but there’s already quite a few big storylines to discuss league-wide.

Here’s a look at some of them in the weekly NBA Notebook.

<h3>Can the Lakers fix what ails them?</h3>

Off to a 1-5 start to the season and losing its first five games, it wasn’t exactly surprising to see the Los Angeles Lakers jump out as horribly as they did considering the fact they basically came back with the same team as the season before, only now with Patrick Beverley and a new head coach in Darvin Ham as they became that much older, less athletic, unable to shoot from three-point range and also less experienced in the process.

Coming into this season, most expected this just to be a season for the Lakers to celebrate LeBron James becoming the all-time leading scorer in NBA history – a march he’s well on his way to by averaging 25.8 points per game this season.
However, while the record isn’t totally unexpected, the abysmal play has certainly raised some eyebrows.

L.A. is shooting a league-worst 26.6 per cent from three-point range this season and are putting up just 100.3 points per 100 possessions, good for dead last in the league. Jarring numbers, even with the expectation that this wasn’t going to be a great shooting team.

And this is probably why the Lakers dominate so much national conversation around the NBA right now.

Sure, they’re bad, but did anyone really see them being <i>this</i> bad?
With all that said, though, there appears to be a glimmer of hope.

On Sunday, the Lakers picked up their first win of the season, beating a talented Denver Nuggets team 121-110 as they not only picked up a win at last but broke out offensively, assisting on 24 of their 46 made field goals and shooting 43.3 per cent from three-point range.

A major key to all of this was Russell Westbrook coming off the bench, racking up 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting while grabbing eight rebounds and dropping eight dimes.

Westbrook came off the bench in Los Angeles’ game before but really appeared to find his footing as a sixth man on Sunday as his free-wheeling style of play actually appeared to work in the context of playing with and against a secondary unit.

One game is much of a small sample size, but there does seem to be some hope in Laker Land if Westbrook can embrace this new role.

<h3>The Nets are in a lot of trouble</h3>

The Brooklyn Nets entered the season as, perhaps, the most talented team in the NBA. Led by star trio Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons to go along with a supporting cast that includes the likes of Nic Claxton, Patty Mills, Seth Curry, Markieff Morris and Joe Harris, on paper the Nets looks like they should be one of the best teams in the NBA.

Unfortunately, however, this team also came into the season while sitting on top of a powder keg with a box of matches sitting next to it.

Durant, of course, reportedly made a trade request and asked for head coach Steve Nash and general manager Sean Marks to be fired in the off-season, leading to some obvious questions about team unity to begin the season, despite some public posturing that everything was going to be alright.

Since then, however, Brooklyn’s gone 2-5, has already had a players-only meeting and have had to deal with Irving deciding to put on his tinfoil hat once again as he decided it would be a good idea to post about an antisemitic book and movie and about conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

Oh, and Nash and the Nets also just parted ways because someone needs to take the fall - but needs to do so amicably.

Yes, it’s only seven games into a long season but by all appearances that box of matches seems to have at least one that’s lit and ready to blow the whole operation up with Nash just the first domino to fall.

Granted, with players as talented as Durant and Irving on the team, things could get mended in a hurry, but that isn’t where things appear to be trending, and if you’re a Nets fan it might be better to prepare for the worst.

<h3>What to make of the Josh Primo situation?</h3>

The NBA world was shocked when promising 19-year-old Canadian shooting guard Joshua Primo was released by the San Antonio Spurs on Friday evening. Primo was coming off an impressive rookie campaign that saw him play meaningful minutes as a teenager and he was contributing for a Spurs team that is off to a surprisingly good start this season.

Primo released his own statement following the move, saying that he needed to “focus on my mental health treatment more fully.” However, ESPN later reported that there were “multiple alleged instances” of Primo exposing himself to women.

Primo went unclaimed after he cleared waivers on Monday, but the same ESPN story reported that “many NBA teams remain intrigued.”

That said, don’t be surprised if Primo’s name pops up again as the season progresses and clubs get desperate because they want to make a late run at the NBA Playoffs and beyond.

<h3>Hot starts from unexpected clubs</h3>

In more positive news around the NBA, how about those Portland Trail Blazers, Utah Jazz, Cleveland Cavaliers and Spurs, eh?

These four teams are off to better than expected starts with the Blazers leading the pack as they top the Western Conference with a 5-1 record.

Portland has got it done thanks to Damian Lillard remaining one of the most lethal forces in basketball and, now, what appears to be a strong supporting cast around the superstar guard.

The Blazers boast a top-10 defence to begin the season, Anfernee Simons is taking a real leap in his fifth year, Jerami Grant has slotted back in seamlessly as a high-end role player after putting up star-like numbers with Detroit previously, and Canadian rookie Shaedon Sharpe has looked every bit worth the hype as those comparisons to Vince Carter look very much warranted.

The Cavaliers may not be warranted to include with this group but you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who really thought they’d be clicking this well, this early.

After a close opening-night loss to the Toronto Raptors, the Cavs have racked off five in a row as Donovan Mitchell has been every bit worth his acquisition price averaging 32.2 points and 7.3 assists per game.

He’s been doing his damage without needing to worry about playing alongside all-star backcourt partner Darius Garland, meaning he’ll likely still need to adjust to playing with him when he returns from his eye injury, but Cleveland’s been awesome so far, putting up the fourth-best offensive rating, third-best defensive rating and second-best net rating in the entire league.

And as for the Jazz and Spurs, they’ve both played solid basketball, but you also have to wonder if that’s something they want to be doing. Both teams made significant trades in the off-season as what appeared to be means to get worse and get themselves in the hunt for Victor Wembanyama. Thus far, that plan hasn’t worked out too well for them as they’ve been playing too well.

<h3>Wemby Watch all season long</h3>

And on the topic of Wembanyama, did you know that you’ll be able to watch him all season long?

As part of promotion for its new and improved NBA app, the league is streaming all of Wembanyama’s Boulogne-Levallois Metropolitans 92 games this season on the app.

Play has already begun with the Metropolitans 92 beating Bourg-en-Bresse 95-91 in overtime on Saturday as the 18-year-old French phenom put up 23 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks.

Wembanyama is the presumed No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. A seven-footer with legitimate point guard skills and shooting touch who can also rim protect, he’s looking like he might be the most hyped prospect since LeBron James was anointed “The Chosen One” by Sports Illustrated when he was in high school.