Best way is to run post up plays for Russ. Run a few mid range plays for Russ which we did. Russ will run the second unit and let’s hope he does better job then he did in the playoffs
Explain to me how it’s perfectly logical to believe that a guy who for his career was a wildly inefficient volume scorer, magically found the solution to end his career long struggles. But it’s not logical to believe that the guy who for his career is a wildly inefficient volume scorer, would come back to earth after a scorching hot(outlier stretch based on his entire career) and become inefficient again?
Russ is no Kobe. Kobe was supremely skilled . Again the crux of the issue is in the playoffs teams will not allow the Rockets or Russ be a full court sprintathon. They will slow it down and that’s when he has to be smarter.
he did that by taking advantage of the attention and opportunities Harden was generating for him he came to the bubble dribbling like he had broken fingers or nerve damage...he came to the bubble forgetting how to make an on target pass...he came into the bubble playing like he was trying to prove he’s actually not a sh*tty shooter...that’s on him the severe lack of skill he developed all of the sudden exacerbated his bad decision making
Running backs have on average the third highest 40 yard times behind dbs and receivers. They can sprint fast. Harden can run off ball sometimes. It's possible.
I don't think his skillsets magically devolved so much. Occam's Razor suggests it's because he was playing on essentially preseason legs. Westbrook's bad decision making is always going to be exaggerated by a stationary offense where defenses can easily predict passing lanes.
Definitely, but it's not what teams allow, you have to force teams to react to you. That's what small ball did. Hey, you guys won't play Mcgee, you won't play Dwight, you won't play big or we'll tear you to shreds. Lebron: Fair enough, we'll adjust. At that point, the team has to figure out how they can get the Lakers back on defense. The lakers forced us into shots we didn't want to take and they were running our offense. We wanted them to double...only issue is, the Lakers WANTED that too, we had to realize we were playing into their hand. Something has to change. Also, for all the people that think Russ is such an issue, we sure were struggling with Thunder and praying for his return.
I mean Westbrook has had amazing stretches before in his career. You don't think he's ever had a month in OKC averaging 30 on 50% raw fg%?
Small ball was pure stupidity and I’m glad it will be gone with the future coach. The Lakers pretty much we’re scoring most of their points in the paint or off the second chance points or off our turnovers. It was absolutely embrassing how small ball showed it’s true face.
Again with Kobe...look man Im tired of addressing, we can win a championship with the way we use Harden. More variety is all well and good but if your second best player is trash, there is nothing there. What does this even mean? I cant expect Russ to be an efficient player, I cant expect Russ to make winning plays. I cant expect Russ to play good defense. I Cant expect Russ not to destroy our offense WITH JAMES HARDEN. Im tired of this, really I am. Russ is literally just a much MUCH worse version of Harden. He's supposed to able to drive and kick and run an offense. And we did change to optimize his play HE STILL SUCKS. We traded away Capela FOR HIM. He literally had the best stretch of his career WITHOUT A BIG. Then team's adjusted. He CANNOT PLAY with a center who cant shoot because of spacing. Westbrook's best years were middling offenses that got sent packing in the first round. He then declined every year after that even with said big....This is just a ridiculous wrong assumption. He has a higher net rating with Covington. Lol they were negative, he could not keep it up when Harden sat. Then in the playoffs the same trend continued. This was the trend EVEN DURING HIS HOT STRETCH. We were losing those minutes. It is about efficiency. Its about your second best player being a net negative all year. They did adjust? They doubled the **** out of Harden and let Westbrook have the ball. THEN WHAT WAS HIS EXUSE THE LAST THREE YEARS. If the last three years are what his peak is now, then he's GARBAGE. The Rockets were tied, they were losing all the minutes Harden sat. That trend continued even when Russ came back. He played gimply in game 5(lol to our advantage cause he wasnt as aggressive) then threw away game 6 single handidly for us(Iverson tweeted that) and then game 7 we barely survived while Harden was still a positive on the floor for us. We then went into the next series and the same continued. All the numbers bare that out....Russ was our second worse player by net rating(even injured LOL, that's ****ing horrendous). Then people tell "oh he needs the ball in his hands more, he needs a big" NO HE DOESNT. We used him as best we could. Those lineups have a low sample size and Im willing to bet his best lineups are there because Harden is there to carry his ass. Against good teams that doesnt work. His decline has been there every year since his MVP season. Its real, Chris Paul is an all NBA player, Westbrook is not. He cant help Harden and he cant help this team. Okay Im gonna explain this to you. Russ pick and roll is not efficient. So he's not good at that. He wasnt good with Capela. It also made Harden's life harder with 2 non shooters on the floor. We had to make the trade. We make the trade. Russ goes on a hot stretch, THAT IS HIM ISOING but he STILL SUCKS. Harden lineups WITHOUT him were still better. He cannot use a roll man because you go UNDER THE PICK and let him shoot. He's supposed to be effective in transition for us and push the pace, small ball was supposed to help with that too. But well you saw the results. So if he cant iso or pick and roll....well we let James Harden's gravity open things up for him. That works against bad teams with bad defenses. But when team's realize...oh he cant shoot lets put a big on him....everything goes to hell. Not to mention our dude's are gassed from playing small ball which we did FOR RUSS. A dude who cant be expected to get out of the first round with another top player in the league, while putting up horrendous playoff stats is not a good player. First was the year he won MVP and lost to us in 5. He then lost to Utah and the Blazers in 6. They had more talent on their squad both times and still lost. Coaching LOL, dude Westbrook never listened to his coach. Westbrook put up garbage stats, who cares if he's a first option or not. Oh yea and Paul George put up better numbers than this dude who was very clearly in decline. There is no good way to use him. He's always gonna have plays where he doesnt listen. The Bucks have a great coach but still lost cause Giannis could not shoot. How many teams do you see winning chips that have guys with absolutely broke jumpers(and overall poor offensive players), especially ones as their second option? The answer is none. And if you dont care about playoff stats, we are done. You are just making excuses for him. You are simply just straight up denying it. That team had James Harden AND Kevin Durant. He's also not the same player he was like a decade ago. He's not the same player AT ALL. He's way less athletic and his stats are way worse. This is disingenuous argument.
Good thing every player isn't Lebron.... You have a habit of picking examples that just illuminates your WB hate. Riko is right, having WB post up more is a good solution.
He does well against guards generally . He has a nice post up game. However Lebron is 6’9 260 pounds. He is not as thick as Karl Malone but he is the same freaking size.not many people can overpower LeBron. He truly is a specimen
That's my point he was dumb enough to try. Russ isnt that good at posting up either, id be willing to try it more but I doubt it works well. If he cant make good decisions out of drive and kick why should I trust him to do that out of a post up.
