[ESPN/Shelburne] Star power or system? Houston showing OKC the answer is both

So tired of this BS!

 

Yet another Westbrook fluff piece. This one just has a slower burn than the others. Reading that was like watching a piece of tissue burn up......slowly devolving until all that's left is "Westbrook rules, his teammates drool."

 

The question: Are Westbrook's team mates inferior to Hardens
The answer: DO I GIVE AF???
NOPE!!!!! Rockets in 5, LETS GO!!!

 

Looks to Morey, squints eyes... analyzes carefully. Yep, that man is clearly taking very relief-like steps. Lulz.

 

F Ramona Shelbutne

Another delusional media fool in the sack for WB

 

look at the media crawling back

 

Glad someone posted this.

Complete waste of time article, you can't build a team around Westbrook. You know the old saying there is no 'I' in team, well Westbrook spells team IIII.

What you do is find 4 other guys who are desperate enough to find a paycheck in the NBA they will tolerate being belittled by an egomaniac.

 

[sigh] media conspiracy

 

deserves its own thread

 

This is because Westbrook is usually sitting at the same time Harden is sitting

 

OKC's substitution patterns suck, and the Rockets have two guys that average 18 points per game off the bench. It's all about making Russell look good. Personally, I think he would look better if he used a few of those buttons on his shirts. That's what they're there for.

 

Westbrook sits the last cpl minutes of the odd quarters, first few of the next, Harden sits the first several of the even quarters

 

Too bad Westbrook is a lot like Carmelo...good luck building a system around him.

Rage Against the Machine is apt, Westbrook is a very "F you I won't do what you tell me!" kind of player.

 

Let's just say there's a reason they say "build a team around Westbrook" or "more complimentary players" and never say what that team or players are.

OKC has complimentary players to Westbrook, Westbrook's not an efficient player, but he can maintain his volume and middling efficiency regardless of the pressure, so you have defensive minded (drag everyone's efficiency down but Westbrook will still maintain his) and quality rebounders, especially offensively (best in the league after acquiring Gibson) because you are trying to create a game that is inefficient.

The issue is they perceive that Westbrook is the equal of the Harden's, Curry's etc, this is somewhere where Mark Cuban is absolutely correct, he simply is not, year after year after year the same thing will repeat, but it will always be his team mates, and then it will be him slowing down, it doesn't actually matter how many times it happens, and it will keep happening but facts and evidence mean nothing, there will always be an excuse (look at okc the year he was injured vs the year Durant was injured).

(Side note - I'm not sure what this concept is called but it's basically perception drift, the number of people who believe something is mostly irrelevant, it's the direction of opinion change that gives a much better indicator, the reason for this is that all people have bias, so it's the shift away from their bias that is more reflective of what's really happening, another good example is Kawhi's defense, it was noticeably worse this year, but only the people who saw him a lot (predominantly Spurs fans not bitten by the homerus giganticus bug) really noticed it, everyone else is running on their prior perceptions and confirmation bias, this is exactly the same thing that got Kobe 10 or 11 all defense teams)

 

This reminds me of that 76ers team that made the finals in 2001 (IIRC). That system was build wholly around Iverson's offense... err INEFFICIENT offense. AI was never an efficient scorer, but more a volume shooter. The difference between AI and Russ being Russ is a physical BEAST on the court... AI was more finesse with flash.

That team (off the top of my head) was all defense to compliment AI's offense. Dikembe Motumbo, Tyrone Hill, Eric Snow and George Lynch. Aaron Mckie off teh bench and I don't know if AI (iguodala) was there yet... want to believe no based on that year and he still being in the league. But it worked for them. And they had a system, based on the coaches system, defense was key and get your offense off of that. If all else fails: Iverson shoots.

The thing that the media (read: ESPN) want to continue to overlook, is that despite Russ' triple double season, it's fake gold. The numbers look nice. But the way they play is that he forces the issue, then forces shots and pads their (league leading) offense team rebounds because of all the clanks. If he is really the MVP, he makes those role players better. And he simply doesn't do that. Lebron got Boozer a huge contract after 2 years with him. Kobe (arguably) got Gasol 2 rings with guys like Sasha Vujacic and Devean George.

Why do Russ' teammates play so poorly or give up leads without him on the floor? Because his game has not instilled any confidence in those players. James feeds a few oops to Clint to get him going... not just now but all year long. Pat has been trusted to lead our offense when James sits consistently. "Pat you sit for 6 minutes at the end of the 1st, but that first 6 of the 2nd... the rock is yours...". I don't think any of OKC have have that confidence bestowed on them. It's more like "Oladipo, here hold on to this while I rest... and don't worry, Russ has a trip double so we'll get the win."

Bah... I've typed too much.

Russ is a beast. But he is not making anyone around him better. He just doesn't get it yet. Someone call Larry Brown.