LeBron James gets real on Russell Westbrook and the Los Angeles Lakers trade deadline

The Los Angeles Lakers are obliged to compete at the highest level every year. As the winningest franchise in NBA history and a team with LeBron James and Anthony Davis on its ranks, ther areno excuses.

As such, Rob Pelinka tried to improve the roster in the offseason, bringing in multiple veterans and trading for another former MVP in Russell Westbrook. Needless to say, that hasn’t paid off thus far.

The Lakers are playing below .500 basketball, Westbrook’s shot isn’t falling, and their defense has been one of the worst in the Association. Even so, LeBron won’t point the finger at any of his teammates.

LeBron James Has Russell Westbrook’s Back

“We all in the foxhole together,” James told the media.“There is not one guy who is doing it by themself. There’s not one guy you can blame over another guy. There’s not one guy who gets the praise over another guy. When we lose, we all lose. When we win, we all win.”

When asked about Westbrook going 1/10 on Saturday and his recent shooting slump and all the criticism he’s dealing with, The King claimed to be supportive of him and once again had his back.

“I told him to text me later,” James said of Westbrook’s struggles. “I told him to keep going, stop second-guessing himself… He’s an instinctive player, with what he’s done in this league, he should never second guess himself... I have the utmost confidence in his ability.”

James Says The Lakers Will Look To Get Better

But even if James won’t throw any of his teammates under the bus or say one player is to blame for their poor season, he knows that the Lakers have to embrace every opportunity to get betterat the trade deadline:

“I’ve always felt like, listen, I don’t reallylike to play fantasy basketball, so this is the group that we have going into the deadline, then we’ll be ready to take on all challenges that this season has given us,” said LeBron. “I say this every year, if there’s an opportunity to get better, then you explore those options. I’ve been like that my whole career. I’ve said it over and over. If you have an opportunity to get better, no one turns that down… And if not, then you rock and roll with what you got.”

Unfortunately, theLakers don’t have many valuable assets to try and pull off a big move at the deadline, so chances are that we’ll only see him make salary-dump kind of deals and hope to lure a big fish in the buyout market.