I give Westbrick props for his stamina, most normal athletes would have lost steam by now so I guess he is special, not everybody can do what Westbrick is doing now. But no way in hell should Westbrick get the MVP, it's clear for all to see what he's doing is not conducive to winning games. How exactly is OKC weak? Adams alone is good enough to build a team around, it's just that he is marginalized thanks to Westbrick getting all the defensive rebs and taking too many shots. When your best player isn't even doing the minimal thing like helping your team win games then no way does he deserve the MVP.
If you watched last year's playoffs he has that potential. If Gobert is good enough to build around then Steven Adams is good enough to build around him, he's a very solid offensive and defensive player. If Westbrick wasn't hogging all the defensive rebs Adams would get more than 4 defensive rebs a game and he'd average a double double, in terms of offensive rebounds they average the same rate as Gobert but he only gets 4 defensive rebs while Gobert gets 8 defensive rebs, I wonder why that is the case? If Westbrick stops hogging all the shots then maybe Adams can get more attempts and increase his offensive efficiency, it's hard to shoot well when you play lots of mins but only get 8 attempts a night.
The Jazz are only built around Gobert defensively, and Adam's isn't in that class as a rim protector/rebounder. Offensively, Rudy's their 4th option. Really odd comparison. Also, when literally 95% of your shots come within 10 feet of the basket (and almost 60% within three feet), your shooting efficiency shouldn't suffer much. We're not talking about a jump shooter here.
I don't see Westbrook getting double digit rebounds in the 90's because the paint was big man territory and anyone who stepped in there even on the same team got hurt if trying to take a rebound. Olajuwon, Robinson, Ewing, Oakley, you name it, they would have taken his butt back in the locker room by the back of the neck during the first game and said you try and pull that $hit again and I'll murder you. It's a different era of big men. Period.
Yeah, but Adams is a lot better offensively than Gobert though that's why I say they're around even if you take the whole player into account. Adams isn't exactly De Andre Jordan or Clint Capela on offense, he doesn't need to be set up by the pg 100% of the time he can score on his own with a variety of moves. The main issue is at only 8 shots a game he should be featured more, honestly all of the Thunder should be featured more Westbrick shouldn't be taking half of the team's total shots because his efficiency is too wack to merit that kind of volume. If Thunder was serious about winning they need to move Westbrick to the SG spot because unlike Harden Westbrick is clearly not a pass first guy, he is not a pg in heart and soul he is just playing at 1 because it allows him to monopolize the ball and the opposing PG is usually a crappy defender so he can get away with less defense. In theory anyway, the reality is opponents stick their best wing defender on him regardless which is why his efficiency is so low every game.
Just came across Magic's stats at 22 years old. 18.6ppg on 13.3 attempts, 9.6 rebounds and 9.5 assists per game and only 18.9 USG% Pretty impressive. Especially since I highly doubt he was stat chasing for a triple double average.
Magic is Top 5 player of all-time, in my book. But, in fairness to WB, in that year, Magic played 5 minutes per game more than WB is playing. Oscar played 12 minutes more per game than WB. Plus, willing to bet Showtime had a much faster pace. Also, the Lakers score keepers were renowned for giving Magic assists for Jabbar sky-hooks....highly debatable if a 10-15 ft skyhook is an assist.
His new teammate, Taj Gibson, is learning you need to get out of the way and let WB get all the board Taj had a rebound in the Nets game and as soon as he saw it was WB, he immediately held his hands back and ducked out of the way so WB can get the triple double. WOW. First time I have seen a PF do that. Usually you see the guards get out of the way and let the PF/C get the boards, but this is the first time I have seen a PF get out of the way for a PG to get the board Taj wants a big contract with the Thunder obviously by catering to WB
Steven Adams got 4 rebounds in 27min. You can't tell me that Russ is in there banging and grabbing boards. The entire OKC frontcourt is blocking out letting Russ grab their boards. I probably sound like a hater but that **** 'aint normal.
To counter the Magic point though, WB is on track to have the all-time highest usage% since the stat was kept around 42.2% close to 4% more than Kobe usage% in 2005-2006 (38.74%)(Currently #1 all time). For comparison, Harden's current usage is 34.2% (almost 8% below WB). Magic putting up those stats with an 18.9 USG% is amazing.
In the post-game on ESPN, Taj talked about that last rebound. He said he specifically gave it to Westbrook cus he wanted him to have the triple double. I watched the 19 assists video on the nba website. Two of the assists seemed pretty BS to me but the rest were legit assists. The triple double average is pretty much a lock.
A lot you guys are nitpicking. I always thought Westbrook plays out of control too often. But the man is having a fantastic season. Thunders are 60-10 overall and 26-7 this season when he has a triple-double. The bottom line is his team is winning at a very high clip when he get good numbers. He may be padding his stats some times but it does't seem to cost his team wins as some of you suggested.
I watched the game and Russ was looking like Harden with the passing. He can act like 3ds don't matter but he knew damn well he needed his assist avg to stay up. The irony is if he played like that more often OKC would have a better record
Why are today's young NBA fans so disrespectful of history and completely disregard it? Blame it on ESPN? Who cares if Oscar didn't win MVP bc of his team record when he averaged a triple double. Who cares if Wilt Chamberlain didn't win MVP when he averaged 50ppg. Who cares if MJ averaged 37 and Kobe averaged 35 and neither won MVP bc of their team record. **** HISTORY. WESTBROOK IS UNANIMOUS MVP! They can call me a hater all they want. Won't change the fact that you pretty much have to be the 3rd seed or better to win in terms of history. But, the media just doesn't give a **** anymore, do they? They run with the more marketable story now b/c the fans eat it up. Unless the Thunder go on a 15 game winning streak or win 11 out of their last 15 while the Rockets drop a lot of games, then Westbrook should not be MVP. I won't be mad if Kawhi or Lebron wins MVP. That's fine. But, I will be fuming if Westbrook wins MVP on a 6th seeded team b/c of bias media.
