NBA Assistant: Clippers' Russell Westbrook 'Not That Player That He Used to Be'

Russell Westbrook is averaging 14.0 points through ten games for the Los Angeles Clippers. That pace, if continued for the rest of 2023-24, would mark a new career low for the nine-time All-Star.

Sources within the NBA believe that is because the Clippers, while losing five straight games since acquiring James Harden from the Philadelphia 76ers, have yet to distribute the workload evenly within their star-studded rotation.

"They have no fast-break points," an NBA assistant coach told ESPN's Ohm Youngmisuk. "There's no early baskets. It's like, 'OK, it's your turn. I got an iso, now it's my turn.' How do you get a rhythm?"

"Russell's not that player that he used to be, but he's still Russell Westbrook and he's still a former MVP. He wants touches and he wants to make things happen. I don't know, it just sort of seems like a bad mix to me."

Youngmisuk described the assistant coach as working on "a Western Conference team that recently defeated the Clippers." Candidates include staff members of the Denver Nuggets, Memphis Grizzlies, Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Lakers.

Westbrook will not be starting Friday's in-season tournament game against the Houston Rockets, per Bleacher Report's Chris Haynes. It will mark his first time coming off the bench in 32 games with the Clippers.

Unlike when the Los Angeles Lakers broke Westbrook's streak of 1,007 straight starts by benching him last October, this decision was reportedly made by Westbrook. The former 2017 MVP "approached the coaching staff with the idea to help the first unit develop some chemistry and to provide the second unit with spirited play," per Haynes.

The Clippers will hope that helps solve some of the team's chemistry issues and helps Westbrook up his production. Westbrook may no longer be the 31.6 point-per-game player he was during his MVP 2016-17 season with the Oklahoma City Thunder, but the Clippers would love to see him return to the form he displayed during the 2023 postseason, when he averaged 23.6 points, 7.4 assists and 7.6 rebounds through five games.