Nobody ever questioned Westbrook's talent or skills. It's his decision making and basketball IQ or lack thereof that can make him a liability at critical times. The only person that can stop Westbrook is himself. The only person that can hold back the Thunder and not maximize their potential is WB. There's absolutely no need for Westbrook to be scoring 25 points when you have the best scorer on your team and other capable players that can score 20 on any given night like K-Mart and big men that can finish around the hoop. In order for the Thunder to make it out of the West and contend he's going to have to average 9+ assists per game. In order to get those 9 assists it means holding back from shooting at times and deferring to the best player on the team/scorer in the league, penetrating and kicking out to K-mart and creating easy buckets for Ibaka and Perk. The reason why CP3 and Dwill are regarded as 1A and 1B as far as the best PG's go in this league is because they know when to shoot and when to pass. Both of them are capable of averaging 25 ppg if they really wanted to. They average around 20 and focus on getting their teammates involved and they don't even have a KD to defer to. If you replace WB with either of those guys they immediately make the Thunder squad better. The motto for Westrbrook should be simple. Pass 1st shoot 2nd.
First of all Deron is not better player than Westbrook. Westbrook is point guard of NBA best offense. That's what point guard primary task is - making your team score. How you do it, or who does it, doesn't really matter. Not to mention that team has no low post offense and almost no big who can catch the ball. Westbrook assists dropped, because he went from playing with Jeff Green and Nenad Krstic to Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins. And second reason why his assists dropped, because Harden handled the ball more than before. Durant does his thing mostly unassisted(about 60% of his baskets were unassisted last year). Number of assists of your point guard doesn't tell you how good your offense is. Rondo averaged 11 assists, but Boston had one of the worst offenses in the league(26th) and he played with Pierce, Allen, Garnett.
You're not dumb,but this post is beyond dumb. If westbrook doesn't score 25, who else can and wil score? I guess you're gonna give me perkins or thabo? Maybe u will give me ibaka? How many points do you want durant to score when he leads the league in scoring? Durants is a great player and effecient scorer, but he's different than kobe,lbj,wade,carmello types. With durant, you kinda gotta run a play for him late in games.Now since they added another scorer, maybe he do shoot less,but you simply don't like westbrook.
Actually Deron is quite a bit better than Westbrook. If they were both the same age I'd be willing to bet that 28/30 GM's would rather take Deron Williams. You mention that WB's assists dropped because he went from playing with Jeff Green and Krstic to Ibaka and Perkins. That's pretty funny. Jeff green has been non-existent in Boston due to his injury yet Rondo's assist numbers have INCREASED while LOSING Perkins who mind you was averaging 10 ppg as a Celtic compared to 5 ppg now with the Thunder. Perkins also shed a bunch of weight was in the best shape of his life as a Thunder. Did he forget to score all of a sudden? Sounds to me more like the PG neglecting the big man. You're trying to tell me Boston had one of the worst offenses when KG, Pierce, and Allen were running on fumes at the twilight of their careers. They were all 35 or older. Furthermore, the old 3 were saving themselves for a final playoff push. Them being ranked 26th offensively had very little to do with Rondo.
Rondo has been second least efficient starting point guard in the league, so yeah it does have to a lot with him.
I think you'll say the opposite at the end of this year! I think Harden will be the better player this season. And all-star wings are more important than all-star points for championships, so there's an inherent 'betterness' in Harden than Westbrook. [note: the Thunder have their wing in Durant and no, I didn't say we were contending for the championship this season]
Actually I am indeed going to give you all 3. Perkins, Ibaka and Thabo are all capable scorers. They're not offensive juggernauts by any means but it's not like they're completely useless like you make it seem to be. Perhaps they look incapable of scoring because they're being neglected. Looking deeper from when WB was averaging 8 assists per game a couple season ago to last years pathetic 5.5 you will notice that Ibaka's ppg dropped by about a Point per game as WB's scoring went up and assists went down. The same goes for Thabo who's average dropped by a little over a point. Those may not seem like much but they add up over the course of a season. The biggest change is Perkins who's average dropped by about 5 ppg compared to when he was in Boston. A PG's responsibility is to get his teammates easy buckets, maximize their potential and make the game easier. There's absolutely no reason why Ibaka shouldn't be averaging 12+ PPG and 10 ppg for Perkins. If Westbrook played the right way (Pass 1st shoot 2nd) those guys wouldn't be averaging those numbers. Perk and Ibaka are both big bodies that can finish around the rim and especially Ibaka who can play above the rim and has a nice jumper. I can only imagine the amount of easy buckets he would be getting if say for example Rondo was running the show. I have nothing against Westbrook. I'm just critical of him because he could be so much better. It's frustrating to see bad decision making from anybody but extra frustrating when it's from someone who could and should be better.
That's as arbitrary a starting point as mine. If you start at 1990, the numbers are different. I'm assuming your 7 titles include 5 by Magic, still one of the top 5 players of all time, and 2 by Isiah. If I start after the Pistons last championship, there are only 2 teams at most. One the Spurs the one year when Parker was as instrumental as anyone on the team - though that's a stretch, and the other the Billups led Pistons, but that team is as much as outlier as any team. I understand your argument and point. You're saying it's not about position, but total accumulation of talent. Of course. That's a no brainer. But I'm trying to understand the difference between the champion and the conference finalists. To that end, the question to me is why have the teams that have had the most accumulation of talent (the champions) more often than not failed to include a supremely talented PG? I don't have the answer. I won't even say it is definitively statistically significant. But the results are the results.
The guy was getting easy buckets and scoring 10 a game when Rondo was feeding him the rock. When you ignore him and his average dips to 5 then yes it does seem like a hyperbole of the highest order.
When Wbrook's speed goes, and it will, so goes his game. He's explosive as any but relying on athleticism will get you to about 30 years old. He might be better now, but he'll be done LONG before Harden will. This is like comparing a 9.5 to a 9.6
I've seen it all. Asiasn sensation called perkins,thabo,and ibaka capable scorers,lol. I've also seen someone post that when westbrooks explosion is gone,he's done. They hasn't even turned 24 yet,lol. I also heard the same about amare and his career has lasted longer than. Yao ming. Marion is still a better player than battier and he's not the same thlete he once was either. Some of these guys are funny. Btw the way, harden just got 80m which is what this was about from the start. Give it to the guy, he had mr "no extensions" over a barrell and he used all of his leverage. Now people wonder why he was traded,but now he has the pressure of not only getting paid like a superstar,but leading this team to the playoffs. Joe johnson did it in atl after a max deal and now its hardens turn, no excuses.
You are correct. This was also a time when the East was historically at their weakest overall. So much so that 37-45 was good enough to get in to the dance. I'm pretty sure James Harden can lead the Rockets to 37 wins in his first season without anyone remotely as good and or talented as Josh Smith.
They are both great players with different styles. WB is not unstoppable...not even Lebron. The reason why Harden did great against Spurs and WB looks good against Heat is very simple: WB had to face Parker, and Harden had to face Dwade.
