Westbrook: "I don't give a f*** about (my stat) line."

I remember watching him freeze out his teammates after getting his 10th assist in games last year. Before everyone started making a big deal about him possibly averaging a triple double again this year, Steven Adams had 6 straight games with 10+ rebounds. Since then? He's had 8, 3, and 7. Remember when he had Durant on his team and people were debating why Durant wasn't getting as many chances in clutch time as he needed? Remember last season in game 3 against the Rockets when Victor Oladipo had 12 points on 5/8 shooting and literally got two shot attempts in the 4th quarter? What about in game 4 when Oladipo had 15 points on 7/10 shooting and literally only had one shot attempt in the 4th quarter?

I used to coach a JV basketball team. We had a guy that played PG and thought he was awesome. We had another kid that was a solid shooter. Once he hit a couple, there was no stopping him.

One game our shooter gets hot near the end of the first half. He hits three straight three-pointers, one of them was from way behind the line. With the clock winding down in the half, our PG gets the rebound and dribbles down the court and our shooter breaks toward the corner. Two defenders break toward our PG and instead of passing it to the other guy, he forces up a long shot with two hands in his face. Of course he missed.

When I asked him why he forced the shot up instead of getting it to our open shooter, he said "We can't force that shot every time. They were expecting him to shoot it." I told him that was ridiculous. He literally just forced the shot and that he was being selfish.

Russell Westbrook reminds me of that PG.

 

Why hide it? It's so obvious he cares, I would've respected him more if he would've come out and said it. I have no problem with chasing a historical feat, but not like this.

 

The people don't like this. He's finally being exposed for being a stat padder

 

The reason why their transition efficiency is higher when Westbrook gets the rebound vs. when he doesn't get the rebound is because he is not out on the break for an effective outlet pass. Rather, he tried to get the rebound but failed. Now the team is in a worse position, and most likely, the other team has more defenders back as well. I don't think there are numbers, but I betcha the efficiency would rank in this order:

1. Big rebounds. Outlets it to Westbeast out to the perimeter.
2. Worstbrook gets rebound and starts break.
3. Dumbrook doesn't get rebound and hovers around big for the ball.

1 and 3 are covered in the "Westbrook doesn't get the rebound". Westbrook, in my eye test from watching, also fails to break well when the big gets the ball, and he doesn't keep his head up in transition as well as Harden or Lebron. His basic fundamentals are just straight awful sometimes.

Classic case of data not showing the correct answer. Ball always travels faster than the man.

 

getting a dominant transition guard the ball early is a good thing... having him get the board early coincides with that most of the time ...but the point is get it too him early regardless - don't sell out on defense or turn 4 guys into a box out caravan to get him the statistical Reb....both things that the Thunder have done

 

I read they are 82-18 when he gets a triple double

He should focus on assists, defense, etc and shoot less. He's not efficient

 

Westbrook with the triple double!

I will have more respect for the analyst who vote for him again because of it.

Last years award was a joke.

 

The ClutchFans butthurt is strong.

 

Well the Pacers won 48 games with two of OKCs ex-players having Career years. I remember Durvasa being the logical, objective voice around here, now it seems he’s just a contrarian.

 

Honestly its better for us if other teams chase after empty stats and pay through the ear for the max years. It makes us even better when we chase after the right stats. I'm all for the media making a hoopla over the Westbrooks and Blake Griffins. Maybe it'll keep Harden's fire stoked longer and brighter.

Its like getting Mavs to pay Chandler big money and we sign Ariza on the cheap. We get a plus while a competitor gets a minus. Too bad Nerlens was too dumb to really eff Cuban.

 

If you average 9 rebounds like LeBron did, it's his best season ever. But if you average 10, it's stat padding

 

Um, yeah. Because there's such an illogical big fuss made over double digit rebounds and assists where the difference between 10 and 9 might determine whether you're MVP or not, regardless if your team has significantly worse record.

If LeBron wanted to statpad, he'd have a lot more than 9. It'd be quite silly to stop at 9 when suddenly Westbrook's season is considered a successful one because he got his triple double average again.

 

My guess is, he probably wanted to say "cherry picking" which is a common phrase for easy picking (of rebounding stats).

 

Someone has asked the question. If it is such a good advantage for winning basketball, why don't more teams do that? Why is having your big guys blocking out for your PG to get the rebound not a commonly employed strategy for fast breaking teams? Heck, why are the Rockets not doing it? Why were the D'Antoni Suns not doing it for Nash when they emphasized so much on fast attacking offense?

 

The 20 rebounds brought audible laughter to my group of friends. It is very obvious, and now it makes last year seem less significant. He had moments that swayed the voters last year, he's not even in the top 3 discussion this year...

 

The year is 2038, 20 years after Russell Westbrook's historic second consecutive triple double season:

"Russ, you never won a championship in your career. Do you-"
"2017. Triple Double. 2018. Triple Double."
"...right but despite putting up historical stats, you've never made it out of the 1st round in the playoffs since Kevin left OKC. Can you-"
"2017. MVP. What else is there to talk about?"
"If you could give up one of your triple double seasons for a champion would y-"
"Do you know how HARD it is to steal rebounds from my teammates?"

 

He did stop at 9. Well 8.6 to be exact

It's awesome to get a triple double, unless you do it for a whole season. Then it's stat padding

 

That's a good point. His number of triple double games is probably more impressive than the season average.

But I still have the beef about giving so much attention on the double digit criterion. Double digit scoring is nothing. Double digit rebounding is a little harder but easy to inflate, as we have witnessed so many times now witnderh the Thu. Double digit assists is even more difficult to achieve. But I have come to realize that not all assists are created equal. A lot of times, it's the scorer who really created the points, not the passer. Some passing make the shot easier and should get the credit. Some assists are just simple passes and the scorer does most of the work to score.

Anyway, the triple double thing has two dumb things embedded. One, the double digit criterion is so arbitrary. Two, lumping all statistical categories using the same numerical standard makes no sense at all.

 

Adams has more offensive rebounds per game than defensive rebounds. He would average 15 rebounds of he was a rocket.