Russell Westbrook Rumors: PG Has Been 'Model Citizen' With Clippers

Russell Westbrook may have been cast as the fall guy during his ill-fated time with the Los Angeles Lakers, but things have been far smoother during his time with the Los Angeles Clippers.

"Model citizen, really," a source told Sean Deveney of Heavy Sports. "He helps with younger players, he is good in the locker room, everyone likes him. He is comfortable and it is showing."

The 34-year-old has played well for the Clippers, averaging 15.2 points and 7.8 assists per game in 18 starts. Westbrook averaged 15.9 points per game in 52 games with the Lakers, almost exclusively coming off the bench, but where he's shooting 48.4 percent from the field and 32.2 percent from three with the Clippers, he shot just 41.7 percent from the field with the Lakers and 29.6 percent from three.

The difference appears to be the Clippers better suiting Westbrook's style of play than the Lakers ever did.

"They are letting Russ be Russ, that is something a lot of us have been saying for a while," one Western Conference assistant coach said of his improved play with the Clippers. "The Lakers brought him in and tried to make him a different player, tried to force him to be something he is not. And that led to a lot of the problems they had with each other. But the Lakers left him hung out to dry there."

No surprises there. Whereas the Clippers have yearned for a true point guard in the Kawhi Leonard and Paul George era, the Lakers already had LeBron James to run the offense. That always made Westbrook—a far less effective player off the ball—a bizarre fit.

In turn, that seemed to lead to a level of unhappiness with all parties involved before he was eventually traded this season. That said, Westbrook has never had a reputation for being a contentious figure behind closed doors.

"I have never known him to be a locker room problem or anything like that," one league executive told Deveney. "Whatever you might not like about his game, he is always where you want him to be off the court."

Now, the Lakers (41-38) and Clippers (41-38) will face off on Wednesday night in a game with enormous stakes. Not only will Westbrook have the chance for some revenge, but the two sides are battling for the No. 6 seed and an automatic berth in the playoffs. The Clippers currently hold that spot with the head-to-head tiebreaker against the Lakers, but a Lakers win would flip them in the standings.

And that is what Westbrook is focusing on rather than any individual grudge he might or might not hold against his former team.

"It's an important game for us collectively," he told reporters. "It's probably going to be an important game for them as well. So it's just going to be a big game overall, making sure we're ready to go. My job is to make sure us in the locker room are locked in and ready to compete."