Ok i rarely vent, im making this judgement from watching him in the last half season and the beginning of this season. He is absolutely useless and not only takes the worst shots in crunch time but even the good ones that he gets wide open from 15-18 foot he bricks. Whats even worse is clearly Durant is keeping them closing the game and he does not give him the ball. Thus when Durant should iso at end of game, westbook should be on the bench, put on another shooter e.g (cook) instead of this guy since if durant was doubled he would be useless on the 3 point line. Watching him play basketball makes me want to cry. Luckily it looks like they will get the win today but i see definite problems brewing and trouble with being successful this year since Westbrook is only bringing negatives.
Yeah the kid has got to learn to pass the ball and learn to play second fiddle to Darant if the Thunder are serious about making a run in the playoffs.
That said, both are young players who play young at times and play like stars at times. I think as they grow and get a few more years under their belt they will figure things out in OKC.
Yes Russell Westbrook is useless, how have the OKC Thunder managed to improve every year since he's been on the team.
Look this post up in 10 years. Westbrook will be in the HOF. Along with harden I said it last year during there playoff run in a thread and I stand by it. Durante and those two are that good.
Contrary to public statements, I seriously doubt everything is all fine and dandy in the Thunder's locker room.
Everything is not okay. I could tell Durant didn't express how he really felt in his post-game interview because that's just the type of person he is. Thunder need to get rid of Westbrook while his value can still net a lot in return. I don't think he can co-exist with any other superstar player that's interested in taking their team deep into the playoffs and winning. If I were the Thunder I'd try to get someone like DWill and ship Westbrook off to NJ where he can be the man and score as many points as he wants to and lead his team nowhere.
Until durant turns into a give me the ball and get out the way type of superstar, they need westbrook. If westbrook misses games, people will see how valueable he is.
I wish our second best player on the team can go 0-13 and still win the game. If anything, this just demonstrates how much depth OKC has to beat a team like the Grizzlies when one of their best players are performing like crap. That being said, if Westbrook learns to defer the ball more and focus on other aspects of the game when his shot isn't happening, the Thunder would become that much better. Still, it's just the regular season and the Thunder could get away with Westbrook having a terrible night. But that won't happen in the playoffs, and they will need to adjust in the playoffs.
At this rate? No. Thunder had a great record last year and made a deep run in spite of Westbrook. He put up superstar numbers last year and I have no doubt he'll do the same this year but I don't think he knows how to play winning basketball. Stephon Marbury v2.0
Disagree big time. They lost durant for a stretch of games and westbrook carried the team. He's a great defender and competitor. Everytime he plays paul he dominates him. Not sometimes, everytime. He's still learning and growing, but his talent is too great at his age to just trade away. Durant is a helluva player, but they need westbrooks ability at the end of games to make plays and get shots.
I'm not disagreeing that he's a great talent. I don't disagree that he dominated Paul. I fully agree he's a great defender and competitor. He even filled in nicely when Durant was out like you said. Doesn't change my opinion that the Thunder are winning and made that run last year in spite of Westbrook. For all the good things he does he does a lot of things that cost Thunder games and makes you scratch your head and wonder why he did that. Like I said Marbury was equally gifted and talented if not more than Westbrook back when he was on the Wolves. I see a lot of the same characteristics between the two. I'd like to take a wait and see approach cause I'd like to be proven wrong. Not sure the Thunder have that kind of patience though.
They have the patience for sure imo. What marbury did was overestimate kg's contract into taking and making plays at the end of games. Had marbury just stayed quiet about what he thought, he would've been the player taking and making plays at the end of games. Kg never was that guy and never was selfish enough to be that guy even in his mvp year. Durant is similar in that way. Durant is a helluva player, but at the end of ballgames, his coach is running a 1-4 set to allow him to get a shot or create a shot. He's more of a shot finisher off th creation of another player. The only guy who really can fit that mole are westbrook and to a lesser extent harden. Besides tha, the thunder don't have that guys and they know it. I'm willing to bet they could get howard with westbrook as bait. That's how talented he is.