The simple solution for Westbrook fitting in with the Rockets is - 1. stop/lower taking shots from16-3pt - where he shot .358%.last year (.384% career) 2. stop/lower taking shots from 10-16 ft - where he shot .333% (.391% career) 3. stop/lower taking shots from 3-10ft - where he shot .208% (.316% career) These shots comprised nearly 40% of Westbrook's total shot attempts last year (38%).
Agreed. He's a bad midrange shooter as is most everyone in the league. Even the top 3 or 4 midrange shooters are still equivilent to a league average 3 point shooter. There's a reason that NBA teams take so many fewer mid-range shots now days. With Westbrook, my hope is that he eliminates any type of shot that is prefixed with "pullup".
Yes, completely agree. I said this in another thread. If he just eliminated his pull-up shots he'd become so much better. However, this has been told to him for years. He got indignant with a reporter for asking him this question. He considers his pull-up mid range shot a great shot. HE thinks he's good at it. If he changes as a player in this regard then D'Antoni should win coach of the year and Morey executive of the year regardless of anything else that happens. Getting through to Westbrook to make changes would be Nobel prize type accomplishment.
i can see them going after him if it keeps them under the tax. it adds to the hype and allows tilman to raise prices. i agree the injuries and defense and contract are difficult to overcome. however i think the shooting, rebounding, and inside scoring ability work well with our MVPs and against the LA teams. a 5-out lineup would work well against the lakers to get AD out of the paint. forces boogie to play defense and foul. and we don't give up rebounding like when tucker is at the 5. against the clippers he would score easily inside against smaller players like green and harrell, and lesser talent like zubac. that inside option might be key with kawhi/PG/beverley guarding our MVPs. defensively he wouldn't do well if we switch everything, but we only do that to beat the warriors. i wouldn't be surprised if we went away from that this year. switching everything was a way to stay on the splash brothers around their moving screens and force them into sub-par iso ball. i wouldn't want to force lebron/AD or kawhi/PG into iso ball or mismatches with bigger or smaller players on them. we may have to play a more traditional defense which love can be more easily hidden. he'll always be weak on D but i wouldn't go as far as to say unplayable. he's not kanter, and neither of the LA teams are the warriors of the past few years. i'm not advocating for the trade but i wouldn't see it as a bad thing either. i would worry only about replacing ego-capela in the rotation with minimum players and i'd worry about giving away one of our last picks. but i would applaud them for going all in and putting together the only big 3.
Watching Westbrook play over the years, he has a stop and pull-up jump shot near the free throw line that he uses regulary. Maybe it's gone down, but for the most part, its a large part of his offensive game. I for one hope that he doesn't lose it, but again, being the Rockets do not believe in the mid-range, it may go down even more. Bucket is a bucket, get it anyway you can.
Maybe I wasn't being clear. Yes CP3 did use the mid-range, but to my eyes, not as much as he should have. It is such a strong part of game, I wish he had more chances to use it. But again, this being the Rockets, I feel like parts of his game were hampered by the system. This could happen to Westbrook as well, as he has a mid range shot that he used pretty regularly throughout his career.
Yes he still takes it a lot. He loves it. He thinks very highly of it like you seem to. He's awful at it. You say "get it anyway you can" and the funny part is Morey believes that too. What he doesn't believe in is taking a shot that you are terrible at. There are only so many shot opportunities in a game, why you waste them on terrible shots for 2 points. If you are going to be bad percentage wise you need to maximize the points you get on your shots.
Understandable, but it's a double edged sword. When Rockets hit the 3s they can win, but what happens when it doesn't go in? What to do you turn to then? We have seen this happen over the past few seasons, remember Game 7 against the Warriors? Analytics and numbers does have it's place, but at the end of the day, you just gotta play the game. Mid range, post, passing, ball movement, it's all part of the game and should be utilized.
But he can't hit the mid range either, that's the point. People make this weird leap in logic that goes something like this: "You aren't making your 3s, so take long 2s because you can make them. You need to make a shot." Except there's no reason to think that a player who is awful at 3s and long 2s will be good at the long if he's missing the 3. The biggest thing that frustrates me about the 3 point explosion is that people think teams didn't have horrible shooting nights in the past. It was pretty common prior to the 3 point changes for teams to have those terrible percentages FROM 2 that the Rockets now can have sometimes from 3. The idea that the mid range shot is easier for players is just a myth. Some players are good at it, most are not. The big difference now is that even when they don't hit their 3s at a good clip, the Rockets are still almost a lock to score 100+ because of volume. If they converted to shooting 2s they'd struggle to pass 100 on bad shooting nights. That means you lose more.
Let's take the game against Phoenix on 3-15-2019. The team shot 28% from 3 but still scored 108 points and one the game because of volume. They took 40 3s that game and made 11. If they cut the 3s in half since they shot so poorly and converted to midrange they would have made 5 3s. That means they need to make up 18 points on mid range shots. If they are an average team from mid range they would have hit EXACTLY enough shots to win the game still. If they were even a hair below average they lose. That's the power of the volume of 3s they take. Even shooting a MISERABLE 28% they were still basically the equivalent of being an average mid range team.
I believe Westbrook is better at shooting his mid-range than a 3. So when you stated the follow: "You aren't making your 3s, so take long 2s because you can make them. You need to make a shot.", what I meant is that I believe Russ has a much better chance of making the 2 than the 3. Yes, teams do have poor shooting nights, but when that happens you need to turn to something else in your arsenal to get you going. My point being is that I believe the Rockets are so hampered by their love of the 3 that it pretty much locks out other aspects of the game that should be used. At the end of the day, the style of ball the Rockets have been using has not won anything and that's what is concerning. When you don't win anything, when do you start to make changes?
i hoping this also, but he seemed to have rubbed off on paul george. he became the most aggressive and animated he had ever been last year and was an MVP candidate most of the year. of course james is already an MVP, but sometimes he is too chill when he should be going for blood.
Noted and I appreciate the reference, however numbers do not tell the whole story. Again, stats and the like do have their place in the game, I just believe the Rockets are relying on them a little too much. At the end of the day, you gotta let them just play the game.
Oh, he's definitely shot the ft. line pullup, but he usually shoots under 40% on it. The less he shoots it the better. Any type of pullup hasn't been a very efficient shot for WB.
Russ' midrange is bread and butter for the D'Antoni system -> After it misses, you can safely send your wing defenders down the court and get your team into transition offense or quick half-court offense.
Listen, I appreciate your in-depth explanation of why 3 > 2, but that never stopped George Iceman Gervin.
We just have to move on then. His mid range numbers are bad. In some seasons they are a couple of points better than his 3 and in others they are nearly identical.
Maybe I'm not understanding your point entirely, but are you suggesting that he doesn's shot the ball at all?
