ESPN was quick to glorify his triple double that came in a loss last night...yet for some strange reason, there was no mention of his 27 points on 29 shots or his dumb Corey Brewer bricks in the clutch let’s see how they treat Harden tho...
Why would you quote Oladipo's stats for this year. The quote is talking about last year not having help, last year he shot 36% from 3. Why use this year's numbers when you're arguing about last year? Wouldn't last year's numbers mean something?
Russ completely agrees with you. He wasn't holding back Oladipo or Sabonis. And last year's numbers prove they were just scrubs. And if Adams ever gets traded and finally grabs more than 9rpg for this first time in his career, that's because he just improved on his own.
Huh? Oladipo is a career .354 3pt shooter, he's now in his 5th season, he's spent 1 year in OKC and shot ABOVE his career average. Your argument is that Westbrook is the reason he shot .327 .339 .348 in his years with Orlando? That's an odd stance to take.
He has always taken those absurd jump shots where he jumps 35 inches high and heaves it off balance, like every shot needs to be on ESPN.
This is true. Kobe was super aggressive, but no one doubted Kobe's BBIQ. Westbrook on the other hand...
I doubted Kobe's BBIQ or rather similar to Westbrick, Kobe was more interested in stat padding than anything else.....but nowhere close to the same degree as Westbrick. If Kobe took 40 shots to score 32 points and someone told him he had a bad game he'd say something like "What are you talking about, I scored 32 points?!?!?!" Westbrick is essentially all of the worst parts of Kobe all turned up to 11 with the knob ripped off.
so he was slightly better playing with WB and now a ton better not playing with WB. the biggest point is as bad as the shooters around WB may seem, they were still way better than WB but WB still had 1/3 of the teams shots. he's a low bball IQ stat-padding player. he just passes and gets uncontested rebounds for the sake of getting his triple doubles. once he get's his double digit assists, he chucks away even though he has better shooters around him Rk Age G GS MP FG FGA FG% 3P 3PA 3P% 2P 2PA 2P% Effective Field Goal Percentage 2 Josh Huestis 25 2 0 15.5 3.0 5.5 .545 1.0 2.0 .500 2.0 3.5 .571 .636 0.0 0.5 .000 2.0 2.5 4.5 1.5 0.0 1.5 0.0 0.0 7.0 3 Alex Abrines 23 68 6 15.5 2.0 5.0 .393 1.4 3.6 .381 0.6 1.4 .426 .531 0.6 0.7 .898 0.3 1.0 1.3 0.6 0.5 0.1 0.5 1.7 6.0 4 Jerami Grant 22 78 4 19.1 1.9 4.0 .469 0.6 1.5 .377 1.3 2.5 .523 .539 1.1 1.8 .619 0.5 2.1 2.6 0.6 0.4 1.0 0.5 1.8 5.4 5 Doug McDermott 25 22 1 19.5 2.5 5.6 .452 1.0 2.6 .362 1.6 3.0 .530 .536 0.5 0.8 .706 0.3 2.0 2.2 0.6 0.1 0.0 0.3 1.0 6.6 6 Victor Oladipo 24 67 67 33.2 6.1 13.9 .442 1.9 5.3 .361 4.3 8.7 .491 .510 1.7 2.3 .753 0.6 3.8 4.3 2.6 1.2 0.3 1.8 2.3 15.9 8 Russell Westbrook 28 81 81 34.6 10.2 24.0 .425 2.5 7.2 .343 7.7 16.8 .459 .476 8.8 10.4 .845 1.7 9.0 10.7 10.4 1.6 0.4 5.4 2.3 31.6
The difference between Kobe and Westbrook is Kobe knew what he was doing. Kobe would give the ball up to other guys at times. He'd sit back and let other guys contribute. He had an awareness about his selfishness. I don't think Westbrook does. I don't think he knows at all because he does the same thing for the most part at the end of games. Either that or he just can't help himself. Could be the latter, this is a guy who no doubt stat watches the entire game. You can just watch him go through it, last season he'd get his points first then would start focusing on his assists. I think if you have Kobe in this same situation, he knows exactly why they are losing and either he selfishly gets his numbers or he sacrifices. I honestly think Westbrook is puzzled as to why they are losing games. I mean you had Carmelo over here saying they needed to be more aggressive of all things. Westbrook just goes at one speed all game. I've seen him a few times this season try to tone it down...but when he does he disappears out there. The only way a team can win around Westbrook is if you have a bunch of shooters around him and maybe ONE other dude that can create his shot. Everyone else needs to be in their role of playing alongside Westbrook.
westbrook shoulda been taller and been a wing scorer. Scott brooks had harden run point and westbrook play off the ball in most critical 4th quarters when they made the finals. That kobe/westbrook mentality works as an off guard I think. He just shouldnt run point of an offense IMO. If he was 6-6 and an SG or SF then he would be fine. Either that or he shoulda been a baseball player. He understands the concept of “see ball, hit ball” He just doesnt seem to be good at conducting a group IMO. I dont think he is capable of seeing the floor and making plays at an elite level. Most of his assists seem to rely on him breaking down a defense using his athleticism more so than using creativity and peripheral vision like chris paul.
Coming into the league he was thought of as an SG by some if you remember. He certainly has a one track mind, he even said it after the GSW game that he only knows how to play one way. Yeah, it works for a SG like Kobe because he can be denied the ball. With Westbrook being a PG it's a lot like a kid in a candy store.
For all the hate Westbrook is getting in here, at least he isn't a little sackless weasel like Kevin Durant.
In Chinese basketball forums, we call Oladipo and Sabonis, the "Hard Working Brothers". Oladipo posted a figure of himself on Instagram working out to get back in shape after the summer vacation. Chinese Russ fans credits all Oladipo's improvement this year to this work out in the summer, and infers that it must be the same case for Sabonis. I guess Melo and PG are going to work really hard next summer too.
Lol. When it comes to shooting its hard to credit the weight room for an improved stroke. Yeah, some guys could put up more shots over the summer, but I'd say at a certain point you can't really expect to make drastic improvements from one season to the next. Oladipo is actually trending up and has improved every year since he came into the NBA. Fact is, last season he didn't get the opportunities to be himself with Westbrook on the floor at all times. I don't think there are very many guys who could play their full game with Westbrook on the floor. He's the true definition of a ball dominant player, literally everything has to go through him whether its him scoring or a pass from him to a shot.
Difference between Kobe and Westbrook is Kobe had Shaq, then Pau and Bynum. Basically, some of the most efficient scorers in the game to offset his chucking and also rebound all his bricks.
Actually, Westbrook used to have TWO efficient scorers playing with him. Their names are Durant and Harden.