[The Athletic] Rockets Legend Westbrick is #46 all-time

i would say he's the 5th best ninja turtle.

 

Mikey Jordangelo.

Leo Lajuwon.

 

.

 

yes, but he's the pink one. #staywoke

 

In

Pink is breast cancer.

 

I’ll take Magic, Robertson, Paul, Thomas, Stockton, Curry, Harden, Payton, Frazier and Nash over prime Westbrook and that doesn’t even include someone like Jerry West who was a de facto point guard but was called a combo guard.

Some of Westbrook’s raw numbers look awesome and he is an amazing athlete … but when you get down to it, he is a stupid player and doesn’t make winning plays. He is a terrible defender and is tricked into making mistakes on the court…. Nash, Curry and Thomas have have the athleticism and size Westbrook has… and it wouldn’t matter, they would kick his ass when it mattered.

Don’t even get me started on Frazier who would force Westbrook into 6 plus turnovers a game.

 

One of my least favorite players of all time.

 

LOL. Yeah, maybe he was being tongue in cheek, implying that he was the greatest PG and Westbrook was the second best.

 

He is not 2nd best or 3rd best but it is not really surprising to see some NBA people liking him so there is that.

If individual rankings were all about team play then Steve Nash would be absolutely Top 10 of all positions.

 

Here's a question: if you had to pick a player to build a franchise around in today's game, between Westbrook and Iverson, who would it be? We rightfully criticize Westbrook for his inefficient (thereby mostly ineffective) play but Iverson was just as inefficient and he gets somewhat of a free pass. I personally thought Iverson's defense was overrated--the guy was a good defender but gambled a ton on padding his steals.

 

I think there is a decimal error. #460 seems about right.

 

I'd take AI. Westbrook plays in an era dominated by perimeter players (because of rules and how the game is reffed) and is still very inefficient. I would bet that if AI played with those rules, and with the current emphasis on taking more efficient shots, that he would have better efficiency stats.

While both of their games rely on poor shot selection, we know for a fact that Westbrook insists on his poor shot selection despite knowing better. AI - and all guards of his era and prior - didn't really have that analytical insight to get the most out of their games.

 

Good comparison.

The knock on Iverson is that he couldn't play with another dominant scorer. He's pretty much a one-man offense. So you build around him with a bunch of excellent defenders and let him do his things on offense. That's not gonna cut it in today's superteam culture.

In a way, Westbrook is the same. At the top of his game, he's a solo wrecking crew. He doesn't utilize the talents around him.

Both guys are the epitome of hero ball. Neither can win big in today's NBA. That said, I think I'd take Iverson simply for the reason that he wouldn't make you throw things at the TV screen as much as Westbrook would.

 

Most talented player ever that didn’t make his teams better by having him.

Runner up is T-Mac.

 

Iverson was not “just as inefficient as Westbrook” compared to the era they played in.

Iverson had seasons at or slightly above league average scoring efficiency.

Westbrooks most efficient seasons were below league average efficiency.

 

I'm actually disappointed that you would make this statement but not show me proof since your posts tend to be more data centric.

Number of seasons Iverson finished above the league average in FG%: 2 (97/98 and 07/08)
Number of seasons Westbrook finished above the league average in FG%: 3 (11/12, 15/16, and 19/20)

Number of seasons Iverson finished with a FG% at least 3% lower than the league average: 5
Number of seasons Westbrook finished with a FG% at least 3% lower than the league average: 4

If we want to look at TS%:

Number of seasons Iverson finished above the league average TS%: 4
Number of seasons Westbrook finished above the league average TS%: 5

Number of seasons Iverson finished with a TS% at least 3% lower than league average: 6
Number of seasons Iverson finished with a TS% at least 3% lower than league average: 7

So I'll stand by my original statement of Iverson being just as inefficient as Westbrook.

 

Well I would certainly never look at FG% for this exercise.

I would have you look at basketball references stat “TS added” under the adjusted shooting section of each players profile. The number looks at a particular players “TS attempts” and compares them to how a league average efficiency player would shoot with those same number of TS attempts.

Iverson Career TS added in 37584 minutes played and 22,711 TS attempts was : -425.9 (meaning over his career a league average shooter would have scored 425.9 more points than Iverson did with the same number of TS attempts)

With a single season career worst TS added of -121.6



Westbrook career TS added in 33755 minutes played and 20,580 TS attempts is : -822.4

With a single season career worst TS added of -195.7(with 4 other seasons worse than Iversons worst)


Both inefficient. Westbrook took it to a whole different level.

 

I’d take Kenny smith and Sam cassell!




Some ketchup and mustard for the home team!