Anonymous
Years ago

Is Westbrook hurting his team?

After the game against the 76ers went to overtime, is Westbrook hurting his team with his shoot first mentality? 10/33 shooting is bad, and whilst the argument is probably they may not have beaten Philadelphia without him, does he make his team better, especially as a point guard. Should he be trying to get Anthony and George better shots and take up the slack instead of calling his own number all the time resulting in bad shots and therefore low %? Truth lies in that players coming to Okc have struggled whilst those that have left have thrived.
Now fans will argue he has a warriors mentality and wants to win etc and non fans will say he pads his stats with easy rebounds and will only pass till he gets ten assists. But is he going to ruin okc, George is guaranteed to leave for Lakers at end of season and Anthony will be out as soon as he can, what hope do they have to contend then, might make playoffs but will be in dreaded draft position of not getting high picks and will probably have Kobe affect of having free agents avoiding thunder because of what's happening this season.

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Anonymous
Years ago

Short answer yes... long answer no with a but.

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Isaac
Years ago

Thoughts on this? I don't watch his games, so not sure if this selectively picks plays, or if it's typical RWB.

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Anonymous
Years ago

Doesn't help he has Carmelo Anthony on his team! The team are better when it’s just Westbrook/PG on the floor.

Westbrook doesn’t play a game that works for team succes in the modern NBA.

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Dave
Years ago

I've watched a lot of Westbrook being an OKC fan, as in every game in the last 5 years. I've come to accept that he is what he is. You cant admire all of the incredible things that he does without accepting the pile of steaming shit he can provide when it doesn't go his way. it all comes from the same style of play. I could sure do without all of the pull up 3s though.

With regards to the highlight video, that is a lot of what he is doing this year, he isn't great off the ball but with those videos it is always exaggerated. If you made a tape of Steph pulling up for 3s from quarter court and celebrating then the shot misses, he wouldn't look the best either...etc.

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chewie
Years ago

Dave is pretty much on it. He is an elite talent and you get the good with the bad with this, particularly with ISO ball. I've watched all their games this season and they really flounder when they go outside of their flow offense.
Having close to the worst bench in the league hasnt helped their cause either. This sounds like a cop out, but its been shown over the years that even with elite talent, without any legitimate bench depth, teams get caught short.

Id love to see him in a different system and see if he changes his style at all. Imagine him playing for Pop.

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Reality
Years ago

Chewie - Pop never recruits a guy like Westbrook a bit like how teams wheren't lining up to trade for Melo.

Iso guys don't win you titles so they have little value unless you just want cool highlights as its clear you'll be an avg team.

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snooch
Years ago

Westbrook hasn't had a good year by any stretch but there are more things than him hurting OKC.

Coaching and lack of depth are the 2 biggest factors, followed by a front office that has made some pretty poor decisions over the years.

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Brunson
Years ago

I don't see anything wrong in that video. He is passing it and then creating space so that others can do things

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Ricky Rubio
Years ago

LOL Brunson

He's passing it and then doing nothing else. He's not moving to try and get a driving lane, he's not moving to get an open shot, he's not doing anything. From the moment that he passes the ball it literally becomes a 4 on 5 scenario.

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Brunson
Years ago

Ricky Rubio do you want to exaggerate it anymore?

He makes the pass then moves into space, creating a two player side with good spacing. Notice the other guys on the same side of Westbrook not moving either? Westbrook is usually guarded by the best defender on the court so removing him from playing help defense. In fact, one of the plays the player goes to play help defense and then Westbrook splashes a 3 due to the good spacing.

Here you go a Random finals game 2016 game 7. Within the first 3 minutes the same thing happens 3 times.

0:05 Green passes and stays there
2:02 James passes it into Love and stays there
2:18 Curry passes it and stays there

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgVOgGLtPtc

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Anonymous
Years ago

Brunson, RR might have exaggerated it, but you can't complain about that and then do the same in the other direction. You can't say Westbrook is "removing [his man] from playing help defence" in a number of those clips, where he's sitting ten feet outside the arc. He's not Curry, guys aren't going to stay within arm's reach of him all over the floor, and in several of those clips his man is clogging space and making it harder for the guy with the ball to operate.

I'm not a Westbrook fan, I wouldn't be keen to take the good with the bad in his case. I think he's much harder to build around than the other top players in the league - Steph, Lebron, Durant, Kawhi, Davis and the PG incarnation of Harden are all clearly better starting points than Westbrook in my opinion. But he's the best of the rest and I agree with those above who've noted that Westbrook is far from the Thunder's biggest problem.

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Hoops

Is Westbrook hurting his team?

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