Whats hurting them is the fact that they have basically no post presence on offense. Even Kristic prefers the 16 foot jumper.
Westbrook has been doing it all season. LMA has been doing it for a month. It doesn't take a genius to see the difference.
westbrook has been doing it for 1/2 a season, LMA for 1/4 (21 games). effectively not a lot of difference. neither is proven. either could hit a performance wall at any time.
if by "it" you mean consistently playing at his current level, that is false. in fact he fell off a lot towards the end of the regular season last year (final PER 17.8). at best you could say "it" started with the laker series.