The New York Knicks are in the midst of an extremely disappointing season. After making the playoffs last year expectations for the squad were higher than ever, only for them to completely flop in 2021-22.
This offseason will be huge for the franchise.
Already, rumors are running rampant regarding which superstars Knicks brass has its eye on. And there are some pretty big names in the mix.
Along the same lines, there is at least one prominent player who the organization has zero interest in.
That player? Los Angeles Lakers guard, Russell Westbrook.
“I pitched the idea to Knicks people time and again going back to the deadline, and they have no interest,” Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report said in a recent conversation with Marc Stein. “… Everything I’ve heard is that New York is trying to grow this group as it is and mix and match a few parts and move forward.”
This is unsurprising. Westbrook is completely washed at this point, and the only reason New York is linked to him in any capacity is because of a proposed Kemba Walker trade that never went anywhere.
The same reasons why LA doesn’t want Westbrook are the ones why the Knicks don’t want him either. Sure, he’s a former MVP – but he is also in the midst of an all-time bad campaign. In fact, his Box Plus/Minus this year of -2.2 is the seventh worst in league history. It puts him alongside Mike Mitchell’s 1985-86 season and Chris Kaman’s 2009-10 season.
There was a point this year where Westbrook put together a three-game run where he recorded 9 points on 4-of-14 shooting, 6 points on 2-of-12 shooting, and 8 points on 2-of-14 shooting. Throughout that run, he shot an insane 20 percent from the field.
Various players around the NBA are routinely mocking and disrespecting Westbrook these days.
The photos speak for themselves. https://t.co/ZjeJxl8eCR
— Game 7 (@game7__) March 26, 2022
All of which is to say, it makes sense that the Knicks wouldn’t want him.
Who will ultimately take Westbrook off LA’s hands? Time will tell, but it definitely won’t be New York.
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Charles Kruger has been credentialed to cover two Super Bowls, four NBA Finals, and one World Series. A 20-year veteran in the sports world, he has sources spanning the NBA, MLB, NFL, UFC and NASCAR. Currently residing in Los Angeles, Calif., he is Game 7’s go-to source for rumors surrounding the Lakers, Clippers and Dodgers.
