Photo Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-USA TODAY Sports

Darvin Ham Says He’s “Excited As Hell” To Have Russell Westbrook On His Team

The Russell Westbrook experiment didn’t go down as expected for the Los Angeles Lakers in this past season, which had ultimately led to a bunch of trade rumors and speculations surrounding the veteran NBA point guard.

Westbrook averaged 18.5 points, 7.4 rebounds and 7.1 assists per game on 44.4% shooting from the field in his first year with the Lakers. While he could still put up numbers, Westbrook’s fit with the team has been such a major concern that many fans are pushing for him to get traded.

The Los Angeles Lakers in general were a massive disappointment this past season, missing the NBA playoffs with a record of 33 wins and 49 losses. While the Lakers showed a ton of problems, many fans and basketball pundits believe that Russell Westbrook was the main reason the team underachieved.

Darvin Ham, who is the new head coach of the team however, is more than excited to coach Westbrook this coming season. He recently talked about how he was going to use Russell Westbrook, while saying that he wants to diversify his game.

Russ is known for his huge competitive spirit, and the velocity at which he gets up and down the floor pushing the ball.

The thing I said is “you just have to diversify that”. Not only will he be leading the charge pushing the break, but screening and rolling, defending… that’s where it’s going to start, not only for Russ but for everybody… we have to get back to playing defense… Russ in my opinion is in great shape, he’s durable… I’m excited as hell to have Russell Westbrook on our team.”

Darvin Ham: “I’m excited as hell to have Russell Westbrook on our team.”

(via @NBATV)pic.twitter.com/0Vdjec9OBk

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) July 11, 2022