You have to blame Durant and Scotty Brooks here as well (majority on Westbrook of course) Durant is way too passive on offense. DEMAND THE BALL. The Spurs were jumping that pass all game. Such an obvious play. Once you know what Westbrook's game is, you have to play around it and figure out how to use it. Just seeing the way Pop uses his players and calls plays is just beautiful. Brooks just can't do that.
If Morey were the GM of Thunder, he would trade WB to Houston instead of Harden. I say this without a shadow of doubt!
Reading twitter right now. "Russell Westbrook is that dude in the pick up game everybody hates playing with." Funny because its true.
Westbrook could EASILY be the best point guard in the game. The man is quite possibly the most athletic player in the league, has a pretty solid midrange, improved outside shot, lethal penetrating skills, among other qualities. But MAN!...The dude's basketball IQ is horrendous. There comes a time where you have to realize that the best scorer in the league is on your team, and you have NO BUSINESS taking more shots than him (Westbrook took 21 to Durant's 18 tonight). That's just unacceptable. He takes shots completely out of rhythm, off the dribble, in traffic, and in bad situations. You also have to blame Scott Brooks and Durant partially. Brooks needs to set a precedent for Westbrook, and let him know that him trying to be the best player on the Thunder just ain't gonna work. Durant needs to demand the ball! He's way too passive on offense, which is saying something because the man is a sure bet for 25 a night, and in the end game scenarios, he fails to demand the ball and hit the big shot. We all know he CAN hit it, but it's like he doesn't care whether he takes the shot or not!
The post about Boston being the 26th best offense was pretty funny. There's this thing called pace...also team fg%, etc that are more important than points per game. Ultimately the best pass-first PGs can make guys like Chandler or Perkins look like capable scorers while Westbrook can't...while being able to score as much as Westbrook can by the virtue of knowing how to actually shoot.
Lol Skip. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>KMart had 15, but rooting for the Spurs, I sure was relieved James Harden wasn't out there creating on O and disrupting on D.</p>— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSkipBayless/status/264218890282860545" data-datetime="2012-11-02T04:14:27+00:00">November 2, 2012</a></blockquote> <script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Well this game showed why WB is a worst player. Let's face it WB is really an undersized SG, he isn't a point guard and his mindset is really on getting his own shots over setting the team's offense up. You talk about Ibaka, Perkins and Thabo as useless players on O, and that's probably true but great pgs make offensive stiffs decent scorers. Tyson Chandler and Omer Asik aren't exactly known for their offense either, but Chandler averaged over 10 pts with CP3 while Asik scored 9 pts last game for us. I just find it really funny you talking crap about Harden having to lead his team to the playoffs because he signed a max deal, well what about WB? Doesn't have a responsibility to set his team's offense up and not prioritize his own shots over a better player like KD? Dude's still jacking up shots and hogging the possession over the better player, I think he's got starbury complex.
Harden's max deal starts next season, though. The Rockets are presently a borderline playoff team, at best.
I will say this. Westbrook on his own wouldn't be as good as Harden on his own (as #1 options on their own teams). I've always said Rose is a better player than Westbrook because of this also.
Westbrook is the most athletically gifted guard in the NBA right now. The problem is Brooks doesn't run an offense. It's all ISO sets with Durant running off of screens and constantly catching it from beyond the arc. If Durant can't shake his defender than the Thunder don't know what to do, and Westbrook is given the green-light to go ham. Brooks needs to put a leash on Westbrook. Tell him no more pull-up jumpers with 20 seconds left on the clock and no more ISO'ing at the top of the key. Better yet he needs to get someone to actually run some offensive sets who can dish the ball to Durant and Westbrook can get his when the offense stagnates/ Durant can't shake his man. I favour Harden over Westbrook because he plays with high BBIQ, can facilitate, is consistent, and has a fantastic offensive arsenal. Harden's downside is just that he doesn't have the freakish athleticism of Westbrook so if an elite defense keys in on him he may struggle to make something magical happen whereas no one can actually keep in front of Westbrook unless they give him space for a jumper i.e the Heat in the Finals. Even looking at Westbrook's 43 points highlights you can see that some of the shots and decisions he takes is questionable, but fortunately for him his shot is falling. I just don't see the Thunder winning if Westbrook is the primary ball-handler for extensive minutes, unless he has a Dirk-esque run. He's just another Steve Francis, Iverson, Marbury clone. Eric Maynor is a competent PG though and Martin is going to give the Thunder fantastic spacing/ a good off-ball guard and option. People here hate on Martin but I think when he settles, he will be fantastic on the Thunder. Right now though, they're going to get far in the West solely because they're stacked with talent but I can not see them beating the Heat.
