I have been extremely critical of Westbrook. Not because I dislike him, but because he has the ability and chooses to play stupid. Well for a few weeks now, he isn't playing stupid. He's playing exactly the way we need him to. Far more controlled and attacking instead of a ton of jumpers. Everything he is doing over this good stretch is completely sustainable if he wants it to be. If hes this guy for the rest of the year my Westbrook hostilities will remain silenced.
Oh boohoo... cry me a river and go pound salt. For the record, I even made a thread when we first traded for WB expressing my excitement (situation played out exactly like I said it would too) and almost everyone else were losing their minds in a bad way. I also have many posts defending him as well, so don't try to lecture me about supporting our players. Remind me again how many bad games Harden has had compared to WB?
Again, WB has not had this kind of consistency since his MVP season. Y’all need to appreciate what we have right now. We still don’t even have EGO. Westbrook has never had this many shooters to work with. We can and will be even better.
Very well said, couldn't have said it better. The Russ that has been balling the last 10 games or so has earned my respect and as he settles in has made this team more difficult to defend and is becoming that other hard to stop sidekick Harden needed. His level of intensity has so many upsides (and a few downsides) that it has changed this this Rockets identity which has been great (most of the time). He still has many WTF moments but at this point his high motor has lead to a high ceiling and it's starting to grown on me. I haven't had to slag him much at all lately and I like that
Say what you want then about Russ. I guess I should just feel lucky I don't hate him at all. I love him on our team.
Yeah but WB won't have this kind of shot attempts with Ego by his side. It all depends on Ego's shooting numbers.
It's so baffling to me how so many here resort to insulting and nitpicking our loyal franchise player James Harden in order to defend a guy who 180 days ago nearly everyone on this fansite despised.
what does that have to do with anything. Harden's swings are way worse than any other player, that is a fact. His highs and lows are like 100 to 0 where as most other players usually goes from 70 to 40
Everybody has to bash Paul/Russ/Harden to prop up the other ones. I don't get it either. Russ has really come around and found his game with the Rockets. He was playing like Corey Brewer earlier in the season, but now he's Russell Westbrook again. If our supporting cast can find any level of consistency, it's all systems go. At least once I want to see Gordon, Harden and Westbrook all keyed in together.
Hey, same here! I was pretty indifferent to Russ as a basketball player, though I really admire him off the court. But you will never catch me bringing up the worst of Harden's attributes to justify Westbrook's. He's cool, but my loyalty isn't there for Russ the way it is for James.
Westy has been amazing the last 8 games. I'm a little scared his FG% will drop again though and will make it tonight like it was. Is this a fluke? Finally healed fingers and this is what Russ can do in this system?
He has been driving more and not shooting as many dumb shots. So my guess is that it's also his conditioning has improved and his mobility is coming back which is allowing him to get to the basket at will. He wasn't doing that earlier this season. Hopefully when EG is back he can take some more of the dumb shots away and let Russ focus on driving to the rim relentlessly.
A look at Westbrook's statistical productivity progression in each of the last 5 seasons, based on the Game Score formula:
WB is averaging 27.0 points, 8.7 rebounds, 7.9 assists, and 1.9 steals on 52.1% true shooting in the month of December. Hate away.
I support both. They both have flaws, but are incredible players overall. Over the last ten games or so, we have seen that their games can really be complementary of each other. Westbrook’s energy can take the team out of the doldrums when the offense grinds to a halt. Likewise, Harden’s slow, steady half-court game can calm things down when the one-man fast break starts to get out of control.
