The NBA trade deadline has passed and it left a number of headline-making moves, with the Ben Simmons–James Harden trade between Sixers and Nets the biggest deal of the day. However, some teams look unchanged. The Los Angeles Lakers are one of them.

It hasn’t been much of a surprise, though, considering that they were not in a good position to bring interesting assets in return. But giventheir weak start to the season, we could have expected them to at least try and get a move done.

Many fans wanted the Lakers to trade Russell Westbrook, who had fallen short of expectations in his first months in Los Angeles after being traded from the Washington Wizards in a blockbuster last summer. But the front officedecided not to move on him yet.

Rob Pelinka supports Russell Westrbook, hopes he makes an effort to change things

Even though his numbers would suggest he’s doing just fine(19.5 PPG, 8.4 APG,8.2 RPGin 37 games), Westbrook’s performances left much to be desired so far. Rob Pelinka, however, made sure of showing his support to Brodie.

“I think one of the hallmarks of our organization is to be supportive of all the players that wear Lakers jerseys from 1 to 15,” Pelinkasaid, as quoted by Fadeaway World.“Our job as a front office, as coaching staff as teammates for the players is to support one another. That’s one of the keys to success.”

But as supportive as he can be, Pelinka has also said Westbrook can do something to get back on track and put the doubts to rest. For him, that would be to make sacrifices, just like other great players did.

“I’ve had several conversations with Russ since we acquired him in a trade and I’ve really appreciated those. As everybody knows, Russ is a big-hearted individual. He wants to win and he knows winning with players as impactful and influential on the court as Anthony and LeBron are that it’s going to require sacrifices in his game and how he plays. We’ve had discussions around other players that have gone through those similar processes.”

To encourage Westbrook to make this extra effort, Pelinka has mentionedcases in which making sacrifices paid off. “I was as an agent I remember when I represented Andre Iguodala and he went from sort of being an All-Star in Philly, was traded to Golden State, played a different role there had to mold and shape his game and won championships,” he said. “We all know some of the changes and sacrifices Kobe has made in his career when he went from playing into the triangle. Those are the processes, I’m never trying to compare players to players.

“Those are evolutions and processes that players have gone through.Russ and I have had really great discussions around those. I think the conversation have really been two-sided with a lot of listening and dialogue on both sides and I’ve really appreciated that about Russ.”

Now it remains to be seen whether Westbrook embraces this and shows a better version of himself in the second half of the season. The Lakers’ playoff aspirations could be on the line, so they’ll need Russ to turn up his game.