[OFFICIAL] Russell Westbrook as a Washington Wizard

Its just a simplification of theri entire season. There startign center went down, the team had many sit downs and westbrook started the season injured. HE has been a slow starter the last 3 seasons. They were brushing the floor of the lottery at one point, and now they are in one game from the 8th seed when the probability for them to make playoffs was something like 3 percent. This doesn't happen without westbrook, I get his frustrations, his inefficiencies, he can lose you a game himself, he cna also win you one and there are very few floor raisers like westbrook. i get his volatility can lose him many fans, yet the opposing defense knows he is the biggest headache in the league. There are less than a handful of players who could take this wizards team from they were to where they are. His critics have very real legit points, he lost us the playoffs, and then at the same time in westbrook fashion and his volatility, he has willed the wizards back into a playoff team and has had crazy historic performances if you watch the game that very few could've done. It isn't so black or white.

 

i don't want the floor raised, i think that's a massive negative to the franchise. You don't think the wizards would be better off with 10 less wins? (if you think he's causing those wins)

 

I get what you're saying, and thats a good point of why this year for the rockets it wouldn't have worked.

But the wizards are not just paying Beal the max already, they are by all accounts trying to get beal to stay. And he wants to win. So I agree, maybe the logical choice is to try to get a pic rather than sneak into the playoffs, but they are 'wizarding' not the smartest organization, and yet I'm talking about westbrook as writing him off as good or bad, right now he is averaging 29.3 assist created points. THe most in in recorded nba history, James harden is no 3 on the list in 2017 with 28.2.

As mentioned, I'm one of the guys throwing my phone at hte tv as he lost us the playoffs, Wess at 80 % and in unwillingness or inability to change is useless, but as he has gotten it goign included as he did for us starting december last season, he can carry a team and do it in a level very, very few can. To say westbrook is not 'good' is just too simplistic, hes volatile, but he is also special in many regards.

 

I mean i guess we just view him differently, i consider him to be flat out terrible. He's not even top 150 in ws/48. He's even worse this season then last season

 

It's kind of crazy. I really don't understand the Russ hate.

He gave his all here, played through injury, was a model player for the community even STILL doing stuff for Houston, a team he's played one season for, and people can't simply give the man his due for what he's doing.

Whether he makes a bad team mediocre or not is not the argument. You put Harden on the Kings and he'd make them mediocre, so what? He's doing what a star player does, drag his team to the playoffs whether they like it or not. Now we're faulting him for being good enough to take bad teams to the playoffs...wtf??

 

Yea, I guess I can see when hes like that. He has some cringe moments and cringe games which justify the hate. but the stats themselves give an average and summary and don't show capability, and probably more so with russ is his volatility. The last 15-20 games, they have been among the best in the league winning and have had 2-3 with a possession away as well. Beal is clearly their best player, westbrook is their heart. THey don't win most of those games with out him, just like last night the game winning block, lay ints to tie it in, and of course a missed mid range in regulation let alone hustle rebounds in the clutch. I believe he has the best clutch numbers in the league right now. He is also some 75 or above win percentage when he hits that arbitrary triple double. So his case really is about what can't be measured, being able to harness his capability in the right moments and be critisized when he doesnt or worse, but basically that there is far more nuisance and variables than simply russ is good, russ is bad. The toronto game last night or the night before was a good example as I mentioned, beltrans had a better plus/minus even, both played in the clutch, but if you watched that you saw westbrook heart out a win.

Its an odd thing that his teammtes who seem devoted to him and call him a great teammate who raises the bar and culture vs a media who thinks he hurts his own teammates. The legends also seem to love what russ brings to the table, but you gotta take the best in him with the worst in him. Likewise, from december to 2nd half with rockets, he was the heart of the team and with 4 out played entirely differently with differenty cohesion. God covid, injured, and damn lost us that playoff series, they are both him. Like most things, the answer isn't black or white, westbrook may exemplify and polarize that more than anyone. I get the criticism of Russ, I see validity in a lot of that. I just think theres lot more variables it and more so you miss a hell of a show, maybe a player like him we will never see again too.

 

Nobody plays harder than Russ. That is definitely something to be appreciated.

 

Can’t hate on what Russ is doing right. Putting up historic numbers AND they are winning.

Plus John Wall sucks

 

Let's be real about Russ. We've seen plenty of him, so we should know him well.

Yes, he plays hard, yes he averages triple doubles, which is amazing. On the flip side, he takes lots of bad shots, his shooting percentages suck, this season he's hovered around the 100th best shooting percentage overall and 160th best threes shooting percentage in the league, and yet he is close to top ten in shots taken. He also leads the league in turnovers, by a clear margin. And, we've seen how he pads stats, stealing rebounds from teammates.

So yeah, he's great to watch, he can win you some games, and he also loses you some games. You can't just take his triple doubles in a vacuum, take the whole package and he's not one of the top players in the league.

Agree about Wall, but to be fair to him, he was a better player before his big injury than he is now.

 

I agree with you in that russ is volatile, the type of player you have to take the good with the bad and he can lose you some games, but also win you games in a fashion maybe unlike any other player. He is one of the best floor raisers in the game..

Wall also hasn't played in 2 years, then also sat out this year more than half the time, I'm not sure what we expected but russ wanted out, we needed to tank, and we got a heavily protecte pick rather than nothing. So for the rockets, it was the right move

I don't think he steals rebounds from his teammates, that narrative hasn't held up. Zach lowe went on about how bad he felt for Steven Adams for this, steven adams rebounds and rebound rate stayed more or less the same after and before. Russ is probably pound for pound the best rebounder in the league. Not many guards can do what hes doing. Its him and then Josh Hart in my opinion, but nonetheless he is impressive. ITs sort of how someone took highlights of harden missing defense assignments and they created a narrative that he is ass on defense, hes not, he also had a huge offensive load and had to pace himself. Yes you could create those highlights for MJ and kobe taking gambles or letting their men slide. Whats hard is to shake that narrative, but look at these high lights, find me many guys who can pull off those rebounds in the leauge.



Also yea hes volatile, turnovver heavy, an inconsistent shooter who wont stop shooting, but once again its all more nuanced. Did you know he leads the league in assist creating points. Did you know his number 29.3 or so is the highest ever recorded...in league history. Harden in 2017 was 3rd to give you an example.

Did you know he also is the leader in clutch this year for the nba. Its like we saw with the rockets. In the playoffs, injured coming from covid, he was the biggest part of us losing, terrible. Russ at 80 percent is almost useless with his inability/unwillingness to change his style, he also started the last 3 seasons slow. Then even with the rockets, when we started playing 4- out after the capela trade, he was teh best player and carried us for months, avveraging 30 something at 50 percent shooting. So its too simple to call him 'bad' or good is what I'm saying, volatile, inconsistent is probably right.

Likewise with his field goal percentage. The last 4-5 years, basically if he made one shot that rimmed out, or shot where he was pegged as the guy at the end of the shot clock like kobe, or as you know many players bc they know everyone judges them by their numebrs wont even shoot far shots at the end of the quarter bc to them the percentage perception isn't worth the chance at those, its a shame because now tis become dogmatic of stats where they need to validate everything on that paper and it disregards the fluidity and nuance of the game. So just one of those shots, one rim out, one in and out would change his percectnage to 50 or close and the narrative would change. Yes triple doubles are arbitrary, but you could cut it down to 15-7-7, basically a high amount that would put you high up in the league average for output, he still would be on a very small short list of people who are achieving that.

I agree with a lot of criticism on Russ, I think its fair or valid. but its become too simplistic of a narrative and a broad brush to the point that people are missing out on a future hall of famer doing things that maybe less than a handful of people in the league can do in this way. Its an odd thing bc the bloggers and media folks seem to absolutely lothe russ no matter what, yet the nba players he goes to battle with, the legends of the game who have achieved special things all have great respect for him and rave about him. Likewise the media has pegged him as a selfish self serving teammate, yet from Paul George, Oladipo, Beal both when they were teammates and after rave about Russ and the culture that he brings and how he raised the bar for htem as players too. Its an interesting and unfortunate discrepancy. Take a look at that video above, hes an elite rebounder no matter how many boards he puts up.

 

General Wall

 

He’s gonna go home in round 1 again, like every other year he has had to lead a team. Not impressive.

 

We are faulting him for being under .500 on a team that shouldn’t be. It’s a fair criticism. Washington sucks.

 

Which means it isn't a fair criticism at all since he was hurt and half of the team wasn't even available until like 20 games into the season.

 

It is a fair criticism, as the best ability is availability, and a superstar doesn’t need elite help to win half their basketball games. How much help do you need to not suck?

 

It isn't since we're judging his play on the court, this is like blaming him for not winning games he didn't play in. A fair explanation is that he didn't play a good chunk of games and thus their record was reflected by that. He got healthy and has since done everything he could to make up for lost time which is all he can do.

Is it also Harden's fault that the Nets lose games while he's out?

 

Westbrook has played 61 games. They are 28-33. Again, how much help do you need to win half your games?

 

we found him, what up skip

 

Russ deserves the All NBA 1st team Spot

This year's All NBA 1st team should be Curry, Russ, Jokic, Embiid, Doncic

 

Westbrook is a great basketball player, but the problem is that he is very poor during key situational basketballs. That definitely raises the floor to get a team into the playoffs and can make a hard team difficult to beat, but will never win a title for you.

The best teams/players are usually versatile and can scheme to force more key situations where Westbrook often struggles and does not think his way out of. This especially the case in a 7 game series, where you really learn your opponent well and figure them out. Instead RW keeps doing what he had done because it got him to that point, but he cannot adjust and diversify.

At times, he seems like he has improved his game, but it is really only when he gets on really great shooting streaks from 3pt like March this year or February for the Rockets. But he never maintains that shooting.