Russ Westbrook having better season than Anthony Davis

Westbrook is having a monster season but PER is the dumbest stat known to man.

 

didnt nba.com come up with the pie stat to overcome the volume impact of per?

 

Dat USAGE% doe (40.9)

That would easily be the all time single season record for usage%

More than even ball hogging chucking redefined 2006 81 point scoring Kobe Bryant

Still, none of the other players in top 10 have gotten that kind of PER with the extra touches. Give WB credit

OKC's record in his games: 10-6.
Good record, not really great.
(50 win year record, outstanding for Eastern conference standards)

 

The great thing about being a PG in the NBA is you get the ball first.



He has been tearing it up, and I want nothing to do with this team in the first round. Remember that year we played them where Thabo bricked every three? Well, imagine this. They have Anthony Morrow to take those shots. You can't cheat off of him to deny Durant the ball. Westbrook is better, Steven Adams is a pest, Ibaka is doing his thing, Reggie Jackson....jeremy lamb.

Yeah, nothing to do with them even if that means tanking a couple of games to avoid them. Unfortunately, tanking even one game in the west could be the difference from 2nd and 6th seed when it's all said and done.

 

Best player in the world right now. This is as close to "peak" Lebron as you can get for another player.

 

Westbrook and Kobe are the only ones with usages above 33.5, but perhaps some people should get credit for shouldering a heavy load on the court over the long haul of the season.

For the advanced stats I like to look at EWA (estimated wins added) to give you a good gauge of the MVP race.

LINK

That list sounds much more right to me than the list for PER, when it comes to MVP voting. The only reason Davis wouldn't win it if he keeps this up is if New Orleans misses the playoffs (likely). Hence, the Harden buzz. It's not a runaway, but if Harden keeps this up I believe he should get credit for the month he played and Westbrook did not.

 

I can't get behind the AD train just yet.

He reminds me of PHX Amare(albeit, better at everything).

Can't really create his own shot yet, and is primary a PNR big.

His defense is the best in the league no question, but he isn't a guy who is going to get the ball with in the last minute of the game and consistently beat you.

I would have the MVP race right now

Harden
Westbrook(he is playing out of his mind)
Damian L
Curry
AD

 

To be fair, all the other top 10 players have at least one other elite scorer on their teams (except for Westbrook due to Durant's absence). One can argue that Dwight Howard is not an elite scorer and Harden is shouldering the Rockets' offense single-handedly. Davis is the one guy who is keeping the Pelicans afloat on both ends so far.

 

DMO is having a better season than the brow

 

What about last year when WB was injured and KD solidified his MVP? Like I said in the other thread you keep pumping WB up but if you look at stats Harden is scoring more efficiently, has more assists, rebs and thanks to his latest game they have almost the same scoring average. And he does this with less usage rate. Anyway you slice it Harden is playing better and even he is not playing at "peak level LBJ". I doubt any guard can come close to peak LBJ.

 

Davis really doesn't move the ticker that far for his team, for all his individual brilliance, his team defense is still pretty awful, and he can't defend power players to save his life, and Aldridge did to him what he does to Jones, complete beatdown (27 @ 60%, 12 rebs to 7 @ 21%, 6 rebs, sound familiar?). His backup is Ryan Anderson and he only improves their defense by 6 pp/100. He's basically this year's Kevin Love, stuffs the stats but provides very little beyond that.

 

Per 100 possessions:

Harden gets 36.7 points, 9.6 assists, 8.4 rebounds, 2.6 steals, 1.4 blocks, and 5.3 turnovers.

Westbrook gets 46.9 points, 11.9 assists, 9.1 rebounds, 3.6 steals, 0.1 blocks, and 6.5 turnovers.

So, Westbrook is dominating the ball more, but that per-possession production is insane (albeit while playing 6 less minutes per game). To put it in perspective, his current 46.9 points per 100 possessions exceeds the highest rate Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant had in any season.

 

That's because Westbrook's usage rate is the highest ever

 

Dude shoots ALOT Hardens stats would be even more ridiculous of he lonec wolfed it 5 out of every 7trips down the court. He is Kobe JR

 

But they are both Hollinger stats based on the same core formula

Not sure why you'd say that stat was any better than PER. It is essentially PER, but favors guys who play more minutes. Basically all it does is try to correct that MPG flaw with PER, but it still carries with it the volume flaw with PER.

The only way Harden can pass Davis in EWA is if Davis's PER comes down significantly.

If you don't like PER, you should look for a stat that isn't based on PER, don't you think?

 

Kobe at his peak could not sniff the efficiency of this season's Westbrook. And both Jordan and Kobe had better teammates than the Durant-less Thunder.

I am not a Westbrook fan, and I am still waiting to see if he can sustain what he is doing for the whole season. You can call this stretch Westbrooksanity. It's just a couple of notches above what he normally did in the past.

 

Whatever it is, Harden is the MVP at this time. Davis and Westbrook can keep putting up numbers and Harden can keep putting up numbers AND wins for his team.

 

Steven Curry has a case for MVP

 

one thing is for sure, Kevin Love will never be in another MVP race discussion again.