Westbrook hate: Do people actually watch games at ESPN?

First of all you should know Brousard is an idiot. Second, I think most if not all true fans of the game including OKC management & staff (ie. guys who watch the whole court and not just the guy with the ball) would agree that Westbrook isn't near as bad as the media makes him out. It's just something the media is stiring up to have something to talk about.

The whole "debate" is more a function of being controversial to get ratings and if you notice it's something mostly being said by the fame w**** analysts. None of the basketball guys who you actually trust would say that.

Westbrook has his issues but at 22 yrs old with the gifts that he has, no one in their right mind would trade him. For all this talk about Durant not getting many touches, he still managed to lead the league in scoring so how much of a ball stopper can Westbrook really be? You can work on late game decision making with Westbrook - that's fixable but you can't teach the kind of quickness and athleticism he has. He aint going nowhere....

 

...honestly if there is a guy to blame here, I'm looking at Scott Brooks. On the surface Westbrook looks like a ball stopper at times, but even when KD gets' the ball, the offense stops - same with Harden. There just isn't a lot of motion in that offense. They are so heavy on Iso play at the end of games that if Memphis commits to deny(and that's really what Battier is doing - overplaying Durant to deny him the ball from the top), the only other option is for Westbrook to take his man one on one. There are few cutters in this offense.

I would love to see more off ball movement using Perkins/Ibaka to free up guys off the ball and more pick and roll/pop with RW and Durant/Ibaka.

...you could argue that Durant needs to get more aggressive at freeing himself when battier overplays him, but I think that's where a good coach can find a way to use some of those big bodies to free Durant up long enough for the entry pass.

 

This is a good observation. I noticed the same thing as well.

Another reason why Westbrook took more shots this year is because they lost Jeff Green. In the past Green could create his own shot on occasion and was a lot more aggressive on offensive compared to a Perkins injured or not.

Surely he's no Rondo in terms of creating for others but I think he's doing just fine.

 

Agreed. And I think a lot of people are misconstruing folks (like myself) saying "wow, he's been going off the reservation this offseason, he needs to get back to distributing the ball first" to be "man, this Westbrook guy SUCKS!"

 

....watch how Dirk gets the ball - normally there is some sort of rub screen that frees him up to get the ball where he needs it. Very rarely will Dirk already be in Isolation when he gets the ball unless the defense is allowing him to receive the pass. The problem I see is Durant doesn't have the same luxury and is often times left to his own devices to get "free" and normally that would take him out of the space where he wants the ball. This to me seems like a function of coaching.

 

That's very true but Dirk also has a post up game so he's able to put himself in good position or a position where he's comfortable. On the rare instances where Dirk does find himself in Isolation he either shoots over, drives or puts his back to the hoop and posts up. With Durant he either shoots or drives on occasion.

If Durant can get stronger and develop a post game like Dirk the game would be so much easier.

People say Dirk is a small forward or plays like a small forward in a power forwards body. I think that's true to an extent but Dirk does play big when he has to. Ala posting up Gasol and taking him to the back of the woodshed. He also has a lot of bad rep surprisingly because he does thing's that traditional PF's aren't able to do.

I say Durant is a shooting guard with the height of a small forward that plays exactly like a SG. Durant's already really good but I think he can fill up some loose ends in his game and become even better. Similar to when Jordan and Kobe developed a post game/turnaround jumper. It would do wonders for KD's game and career longevity.

 

I agree with you. It's frustrating to watch OKC run on a offensive set purely based on Durant. He literally takes like 10 seconds off the shot clock running off screens while no one's moving. And when he gets denied or pushed off of his comfort distance to the rim, the offense just dies. I don't blame WB for getting his head down and bulling to the rim.

 

or he just runs three feet behind the three point line

 

I think hes a nice player but I think he fits better at the 2 spot then the 1.

When watching him on the court it seen like at time he forget that hes the PG and go straight into SG mode. Maybe he just needs a little more time to get better at playing the PG.

 

The problem with moving Westbrook off the ball is he is only effective off the ball as an offensive rebounder. He doesn't particularly make good cuts and he isn't a good spot up shooter. He's one of those guys who is more of a danger to the defense when he has the ball in his hands.

 

Well he has to get better at getting his teammates the ball. I just dont think he has the mindset of a PG. Sometimes when hes brining the ball up the court he has a look on his face that says I'm going to shoot no matter what, and thats the mindset of a SG. But he is only 22 so he does have time to get better.

 

The main thing against Westbrook's game is the fact that he's pretty much a SG in a PG's body. He shoots and slashes exceptionally well but when it comes to him actually efficiently passing the ball to his team mates he lacks a bit of effectiveness. When they play tomorrow look to see how he "finds" his team mates and how much ISO he plays. Yeah he carried the Thunder the other night when they had the triple overtime but he should have involved his team mates a bit more.

He has the tendency to drive into traffic and pass out in an awkward, last minute resort. He doesn't seem to play the PG position naturally, he sure is athletic and offensively gifted but when the games on the line, you should CREATE for your best player and pass him the ball UNLESS you have a wide open lay up or higher % shot. You could see game 4 how ticked off KD ended up getting when Westbrook missed a shot or two that could have ended the game.

Once Westbrook effectively involves everyone into the offense the Thunder'll eventually reach greater heights. At this point though, the only thing that's carrying the team is the fact that the Thunder have an the star power.

Just my 2 cents..

 

the guy is not playing to win, but playing to increase his value for money. tmac styl.e

 

I wonder how foolish people like you and some of the talking heads feel who haven't seen WB play much before the playoffs this year.

 

Get over yourself. He played much differently in game 7 than he did in earlier games.

 

Get over what? My point in various threads was you can't judge him from just a few games. His body of work shows that what happened in game 4 in Denver was out of the ordinary and it took him a few games to settle down and move on from that. Problem was, this all happened under the harsh spotlight of the playoffs and people were judging his future. To make sweeping long-term conclusions with little knowledge is dumb.

And the idea he doesn't play to win and but was playing to increase his value is foolish from beginning to end. If you don't agree, feel free to be wrong.

 

It wasn't just the Denver series. He played incredibly selfishly for a few games in the Memphis series. There were times you could tell that he had absolutely no intention of passing the ball.

Playing to win means playing as a team. There were times when he clearly wasn't doing that.

 

Agree with you. It was obvious he got out of whack several games. This happens to young players. But you can't judge his career, character and future based on a few games. Great conjecture + little knowledge = This is what I called foolish.

Some of the times he "wasn't playing to win" nobody else on OKC's offense was doing a thing. He had no choice. Other times, he was at fault. Again, drawing sweeping conclusions about a guy after not having seen him much is dumb.