That's a bit extreme, when he's on his A game, Russell Westbrook is the 5th or so best player in the NBA, when he's not on his A game, he's cancerous. That's why he's both OKC's second best player AND their greatest weakness. It all depends on if Westbrook shows up or if Westbrick shows up.
Durant's home state is not Texas. He spent all of one year at UT - that's the entirety of his life in Texas.
Home is where the heart is, its not based on tenure of stay. Didn't he keep yelling this is my city when dominated Harden and d Rox? He probably considers Texas his home more than Harden considers it his home.
Harden is generally more consistent but Westbrook when he's on is at another level. Westbrook can dominate the game at all aspects when he's on.
These threads are always dumb. Just a bunch of flip flopping and reacting to whoever's playing well at the time. Same thing with the Harden or Paul George thread.
Playing well and dominating in the playoffs is not just anytime. That's when these guys are paid to play well, and dominate.
Westbrook is more athletic and Harden is more skilled that being said - westbrook's 'desire/aggressiveness' is off the charts and is sorely lacking in Harden. For better or worse Westbrook would have continuously forced the issue by attacking defenses. Some nights its frustrating but most nights its beneficial to the team. I dont think I have seen a player attack the rim more than westbrook outside of lebron and Westbrook is constantly pushing the ball - sure it may result in like a 1 on 4 jumper in transition but the constantly pushing the ball keeps the defense on their heels constantly. the guy never runs out of energy
I think that's a good idea. Westbrook plays one or two games similar to Harden's average and all of a sudden people think he's a superior player. The knees jerk quickly on this site.
Next regular season or next playoffs? One or 2 games similar to Harden's "average." Wow, some of you guys are delusional. Nobody is overly impressed with Westbrook's offense. Any all-stars can have great offensive games. That's a given. The really good ones do everything else at a high level.
What I mean by that is that Westbrook IS a volume shooting chucker and Harden IS one of the more highly efficient scorers in the league. Westbrook has one or two efficient games and all of a sudden he's crowned as being better than Harden. It's ridiculous. The handful of games per year where he plays efficiently, he is a great asset to the Thunder, the rest of the time when he's in chucker mode, he's their greatest weakness.
Nobody is claiming Westbrook is a better offensive player than Harden. He's not. Harden is a top 4 offensive player in this league when he's on (with Lebron and Durant and Melo). There are a lot of players you will take over Westbrook offensively, for the same reasons you stated. But we're not talking about one side of the ball. We're talking about PLAYERS. Westbrook is a basketball PLAYER. He can do whatever he's asked of at a HIGH level. Scoring, passing, rebounding, defending, hustling, attacking... Everything. Lebron James isn't the best player in the world b/c he can just score efficiently. Durant didn't win the MVP b/c he can make score 30 points. Kobe Bryant isn't an all-timer b/c he can score a ton of points. Hakeem isn't the best center ever b/c of his post-moves only. And Westbrook isn't being heralded right now b/c of his offense. It's the ridiculous energy/desire to dominate EVERY facet of the game on both sides of the ball. Outside of 2 other players, there's no one who can dominate like Westbrook like he is doing right now on both sides.
+1. Westbrook wants to win more and will not shrink away. Having said that, this could also be a bad thing at times when he is not on.
Harden is bashed because he often is a liability on defense, Westbrook is bashed because he usually is a liability on offense. Both guys can cost their teams games, it just depends on which you prefer, the one who isn't good defensively or the one that destroys your team's offense by marginalizing the best player in the league by playing keep away from him and chucking awful, low percentage shots over and over again. I prefer the one who doesn't make the people around him worse. Even when Harden is in full blown ISO mode, he's more of a team player than Westbrook when he's in chucker mode.
1) Harden SUCKS on defense. That's more than a liability. During the regular season, that doesn't matter b/c you have 82 games. Players take certain games off, so in the grand scheme of things, nobody really cares. In the playoffs every possession matters. The guy basically lost his team the series and you're here claiming he doesn't make people around him worse? He shot freaking 37% v. one of the worse defensive teams in the league for god sakes. And he couldn't defend even the 3rd or 4th option on the opposing team. Are we even serious here? 2) Westbrook can be a liability on offense with poor decisions, but he tries. If you put forth the effort, you'll see results. So WB will have a some bad offensive games, but they can be overcome with his all-around game (as you saw in the Memphis series). He shot poorly, but still did everything else. When Harden shoots poorly, what does he really do that makes the Rockets go? Pretty much nothing. He doesn't marginalize Durant. Durant won the freaking MVP and is widely considered the 2nd best player (and #1 to a few). It just shows to tell you how great Westbrook is that he's still able to blow up like he does some games playing alongside the MVP. Ask Chris Paul how good Westbrook is right now.
