Russell Westbrick Exercising $47 Million Option to Remain With Lakers

News broke on Tuesday that Russell Westbrick...err, Westbrook, will be exercising the $47 million option on his contract for the upcoming Lakers season.

While this is unsurprising on Westbrook's part, given his age, declining skill set, and the money involved, he did wait until the last minute to announce his intentions.

Westbrook managed to average 18.5 points per game and 7.1 assists last season, but advanced metrics were far less kind.

His 15.0 player efficiency rating was the worst of his career and less than half of the 30.6 he put up in his best season in Oklahoma City.

Similarly, according to Basketball-Reference, his value over replacement player was a mere 0.2, compared to his 9.3 peak for the Thunder.

Perhaps the best indicator of his dramatic decline in recent years is this compilation of highlights (?) from Westbrook's year in LA:

The poor play in 2021 did not endear Westbrook to Lakers fans.

The "Westbrick" monicker has not been well received after media personalities coined the term to describe his noticeably declined skill set.

At the very least though, Westbrook has his wife to defend him against any criticism that may arise from being essentially a league average player making $47 million this year.