The Westbrook apology thread for Clutch,Yolo, et al

yup. this team unfortunately has exactly 0 leaders currently

 

If a guy was tall and could do half the things Harden and Westbrook could do we probably couldn't afford him anyway.

 

That I agree with.

 

I've never seen the team look this bad in 2018.

Sure, they lost some games by double digits, but it was never this bad. This is a joke tonight.

Usually, they would lose games just because as usual, the shoot 50+ 3s and make 6 of them or whatever or the other team was hot but it never looked this bad.

 

It's hard to follow your leader into battle when all he does is shout out orders without giving effort himself.

 

I strongly agree. Got to set the example as a leader... your followers need to see that in order to get their buy in and 100 percent support.

 

Both Westbrook and Harden are elite athletes and/or have great physical tools, they should both be elite defenders at their position.

 

The early concern for Westbrook is that he’s not yet really made shots that aren’t at the rim at any respectable percentage, and his at the rim percentage is quite high.

0-3: 78.9%
3-10: 25.0%
10-16: 37.5%
16-<3PT: 18.2%
3PT: 27.3%

I don’t know what his total FG% away from the rim is, but that looks like 25-27% total probably? Then 78.9% at the rim, while great would be 13% above his career high (last season), and LeBron levels of basket finishing. That might be hard to keep up, so he certainly needs to make more shots away from the rim.

 

The league will scout it hard. And his % will drop. Probably already started tonight.

 

And also, many won't admit it, but CP3 even at his old age is better than Westbrook as a defender.

Westbrook SEEMS like a good defender because he does give effort all the time...but he has bad defensive IQ, like Harden.

Then for our wings to basically also be bad defensively, it's a wrap.

 

well , i get what your'e saying .... but I'm pretty sure we are the only team in the league that doesn't have 2 guys that are over 6'7/6'8" that can play with each other !

and even when we've had good players MDA has always elected to play small. Harrell , backup 5 when clint is out then no more mins. Farried, backup 5 when clint is out then no more mins.

 

this isn't a surprise. everyone should of already known he can't shoot.

 

It's funny how people actually think three games could prove anything.

Westbrook has been predicted by many to be a bad fit. Let's wait till the all star break before we declare whether that prediction is right or wrong.

 

Im surethe Thunder are benefiting from that leadership right now....just apologize

 

There's a reason Paul's teams are always at least average, and usually great. He was an absolutely amazing defensive player and he demanded accountability from the supporting cast. There's only one major change from the group that lost to GS while playing really good defense and this one.

Harden and Westbrook wanted to have more fun, defense isn't fun, what we are seeing now is a joke. The team last year gave up 122 only five times in regulation, this is the fourth already, and against mostly trash opposition.

Still a lot of season to go, but this is a scary low level of defensive performance.

 

Apologize for what? I was for the Westbrook move lol, but I know Westbrook's faults and didn't think it was a slam dunk move.

Harden-Westbrook can work out, but we don't have the right team around these guys. Not enough shooters, not enough defenders.

Yep, CP3 even at his old age is still a better defender than Westbrook. Westbrook just gets lost on defense, he can man up at times, but this switching defense is really bad for two guys that constantly get lost on defense.

They should probably simplify it, if it means guys have to fight over screens and that will expose Harden's defensive efforts then whatever, someone should teach Harden how to flop running into screens, it may work out for us.

 

WB has won the team two or three close games but his shot is off now as expected.

There won't be consistency in his shooting, he hustles and tries to run every opportunity.

I dun think he is a bad fit per se, I think Harden and him are not the best superstar combo.

I know they BFFs but on the court you can't just choose chemistry.

Like with CP3, they will take turns but are they meshing well?

Both are such high usage players, it is hard to insert a superstar next to one of them.

Durant is one of those stars that can live with limited touches shooting efficiently, for all the hate he has garnered.......

PG13 was another until he broke out.

 

i remmember a fully healthy GSW squad losing twice to utah jazz in 2018 by 30+