I dont get why people say Westbrook is a great scorer

Better #'s than Iverson.

 

because he's an athletic freak.

 

Sports coverage has long had difficulty looking beyond volume stats. Most people get the majority of their sports knowledge from sports coverage.

Ask about the best scorers ever and everyone will say either Wilt or MJ first, because that's who was covered by the media as dominant scorers. You know who's actually the most efficient 20-point scorer in history purely on squeezing the most points out of every scoring attempt? It's freaking Adrian Dantley. 99 in 100 people would not even have him as one of their first thirty guesses. Jordan and Wilt, great as they were, were not top 15.

In the three-point era, there are 43 guys who have been career 20-point scorers. Westbrook is 37th out of 43 in TS%. But he's third in usage rate (second if you don't count Embiid who obviously shouldn't count). The raw numbers get more attention, as they did with other top-ten usage guys like Kobe, Iverson, Carmelo, and Cousins (all of whom fall below the median in efficiency). Russ does a lot more to help his team in other ways than Carmelo or Cousins does, which is why he has a better reputation - but as a scorer he's on that same level.

(Note: I'm not implying that all-time rankings should be determined purely on TS% - I'd rather have 55% TS on 35% usage than 60% TS on 20% usage)

 

first of all, your moniker is so biased.

second, no one says he is a great scorer.

3rd, ibtl.

 

Because he owns Donovan, and he owns Spalding. Who the hell do you think dare to challenge him on that team?

 

There is some recognition to guards with 50/40/90 (Curry). But shooting is just one thing, ability to get to the foul line is another important factor to one's ability to score (Harden).

 

Kobe wasn't very efficient and is one of the best scorers of all time.

Great scorers aren't necessarily great shooters.

 

Well in theory... the more you shoot the more likely you are to score.

 

Yes, we need more threads to talk about how Westbrook sucks.

CF is obsessed with Westbrook.

Media conspiracy.

 

Scoring and shooting are not mutually exclusive. Tracy McGrady was a great scorer, he wasn't a great shooter. Harden and Westbrook's games are entirely different, that doesn't mean either one of them is any less of a great player.

 

1. Why'd you need to make a thread to say that
2. Why are we talking about a player sitting at home.
3. Yeah Harden was screwed but the MVP race is over. Can't change the votes so time to move on.
4. Let's focus on the Spurs

 

He's a great scorer period... I'm so glad this series is over so I don't have to hear about this anymore. This series showed the greatness and the weakness in Westbrooks game

 

Defenses react to great scorers and they can repress a scorer's statistics, but it'll also tie that defense in knots and sacrifice coverage elsewhere. It's hard to really measure his impact with stats. Rockets overcommitted to him on defense in 4th quarters and made him shoot terribly. If Westbrook would have could have gotten the ball to someone else who could exploit it, the series might have been different. He didn't. Does that mean he's not a great scorer though? The Rockets overcommitted to him because he's a great scorer (and because they had no one else on that team that would make us pay).

 

This.

You can't NOT be a great scorer and lead the league in scoring. Westbrook's problem isn't that he is overrated as a scorer. It's that he doesn't know how to exploit his scoring ability to help his team win more.

 

To an extent. But there are some people that can't even get themselves open to shoot a clear shot. Westbrooks problem is he thinks every shot he takes is going in no matter the scenario.

 

I agree with OP that Russ is NOT a great scorer. I would consider him good, but not great.

Westbrook led the league in scoring only because he literally had way more shooting possessions (FGA+ (0.44 x FTA)) than the other capable scorers in the league. That's not a testament to his scoring prowess, as much as his propensity for chucking.

Just a simple thought experiment : If Durant or Curry had just as many shooting possessions as Russ, how many points would they average? What about lower tier players such as Kyrie, McCollum, or even Gordon Hayward? Would Russ be even in top 5 in scoring if current top 20 scorers all took just as many shots? Think about that.

I would say there are about 20 players in NBA that are capable of averaging 30 PPG if they can get away with 42.5 FG% (below average), 47.6 eFG% (below average), and 55.4 TS% (barely average).

 

Likely you are the one who called him for a great scorer. I heard that people call Durant as a great scorer, next one would be Harden. Westbrook is a great player to do lots of things, but not a great scorer.

 

A great scorer can not shoot the ball with a low percentage. Westbook leads the league in scoring because he shoots too many, and he has a freedom to do so.