Here are the real Cold Hard Facts on Russell Westbrick

So harsh!

Russell was just warming up in Houston for another media approved MVP season for next year.

 

I always said Carmelo sucks... and I always get flak for it...

 

That's an opinion that shouldn't get flak anymore. Everyone was under the delusion of Carmelo being great until about 3 years ago. Now it should be pretty much common knowledge that he's a no leadership, no defense, no facilitation, no effort player.

 

Now that I think about it, he's probably the most underrated player in the NBA (this season). Too bad there's not an award for that.

Most overrated player? You know who.

 

I am no fan of Melo and I generally agree with all those "no" you characterize him. But he was a great scorer in his prime. There's no denying it.

 

I'll agree to that. Never wanted him on the Rockets though.

 

I don't understand looking at points per field goal attempt, and it kind of annoys me when people in the media keep referring to this. If a player is fouled in the act of shooting and goes to the line, that's also a shot attempt. It just doesn't count as one in the boxscore.

Either (a) subtract away points scored at the foul line due to a shooting foul where the field goal didn't go in, or (b) include all shot attempts resulting in a shooting foul and subtract away points scored from the foul line that wasn't due to a shooting foul, or (c) just go with TS%.

 

Points per shot over an 82 game season serves well enough as a ratio to get directional information from. We can't arrive at the conclusion that Westbrook would end up at rank #X, but we can build the case that his value is not higher than other elite players, his volume is just much higher.

People can look at Efficiency metrics and TS% metrics, and should, but they don't. Westbrook fans are so stuck on the boxscore that this is an exercise in telling a story with the easy boxscore stats.

 

Well, no Westbrook fan will be turned by a stat like this or by pointing out his TS% for that matter. They understand he's not a really efficient scorer. In terms of efficiency, he's average. Which is, frankly, better then several other superstars historically.

The more important consideration is how he impacts the efficiency of his team when he's on the floor. Does he at least get his teammates easier shots? Because if a player has league average efficiency and is doing nothing to improve the shot quality of his teammates, then he's effectively a net zero on offense. The numbers shows that Westbrook's teammates have a pitiful 50.7 TS% when he's off the floor, and they shoot an average 54.8 TS% when he's on the floor. That isn't direct evidence that he's making what would be a bottom-feeder offensive team into an average offensive team, but it does support that opinion. There's also the ESPN real/plus minus stat, which says Westbrook has a +6.76 points/100poss impact on offense. That led the league, by the way.

 

fair enough but also IMO he stunted the growth of his teammates so when he's not playing, his teammates don't know what to do. Also a big portion belongs to their coaching staff. They had a whole season to gameplan something for when WB isn't on the court to be at least average, which they couldn't do I guess.

 

That's a speculative statement. Even though I tend to agree with it, it's not a "cold hard fact."

It's hard to argue against his on-off court offensive point differential. My contention against Westbrook would be that his teammates simply aren't very good offensive players. Westbrook is like Iverson. His game is not conducive to team offense. OKC is kind of similar to Iverson's 76res. They surround him with a bunch of good defensive players and let him do his things on offense.

That Philly team went all the way to the Finals. A lot of people use that as proof of Iverson's greatness. But they never mention how good his teammates were on defense, allowing him to thrive as a solo star on offense. And they had no chance in beating the Lakers, or any team that could come out of the West.

Westbrook is better than Iverson. But unfornately, he isn't playing in the pathetic East like Iverson did.

 

Iverson could make the right decisions during critical moments unlike Westbrook. But, ironically, guess who is Iverson's favorite player to watch is?

 

honestly, I'm not a hater. I really do think westbrook has a cool fighting personality and fun highlights. he also is a great player.

that being said, I don't think he will ever win a championship no matter who you put around him. He's too headstrong. I also think he just doesn't possess the court vision and awareness that dudes like harden, lebron, nash, johnson all possessed.

It would be hell to play alongside russell westbrook. If I'm an NBA player I would not touch that with a 10 foot pole. I don't blame durant for leaving that team. I just blame him for joining the warriors. the celtics, rockets, or wizards would've been good fits

 

WB lies to get his wife a free dessert:

 

The only child of hoops.