I dont get why people say Westbrook is a great scorer

It's not that simple. There is plenty of "good" scorers in the league. But not too many can do what Westbrook can.

Sometimes I hear people say, most NBA players can score a lot if you let them shoot a lot. But that's not true. The ability to get off a shot against NBA defense (let alone NBA defense that is focused on stopping you) and hit with decent accuracy is not as easy as you think, and it is part of what makes a great scorer.

I think you are confusing great scoring and efficient scoring. They are related but not the same. Westbrook's inefficiency lies not in his scoring ability but in his shot selection. He takes too many shots that he should not take.

 

Efficiency and shot selection are critical components of being a great scorer. I don't know what makes you think that Kyrie, Lillard, IT, or even McCollum wouldn't average 30+ PPG with better shooting percentage if they were given complete free reins to chuck as Westbrook does.

http://stats.nba.com/leaders#!?Season=2016-17&SeasonType=Regular Season

Here are scoring leaders of 16-17 regular season. I can easily see 10 or 15 players that can average as much points as Russ with better efficiency (some are obvious because they have actually done it in the past.)

When playing with Durant last year, Russ averaged 23.5 PPG on 18.1 shot attempts, with 48.9 eFG% and 55.4 TS%.

This year, Paul George averaged 23.7 PPG on 18.0 shot attempts, with 53.4 eFG% and 58.7 TS%.

Also, John Wall averaged 23.1 PPG on 18.4 shot attempts, with 48.2 eFG% and 54.1 TS%.

When Russ was taking relatively normal amount of shots, his production was inferior to PG and very similar to John Wall's. Is John Wall a great scorer?

And if Russ' inefficiency is due to the fact that he has to take so many shots, why was his last year's numbers (eFG% and TS%) when he was playing with Durant with much less pressure on him very similar to this year's? Russ was always this inefficient throughout his whole career no matter what situation he was in. Even when he was averaging less than 20 PPG and took much less shots, his numbers were not better. He's not a great scorer, period.

 

I don't get why you still have the ability to start threads.