Westbrook hate: Do people actually watch games at ESPN?

his game reminds me of gilbert arenas back when he was decent.

probably not a good sign

 

you mentioned this before and i replied with that he is taking flack because he has played reckless and selfish at times. Yes, he is more of a scoring PG, but still has to get others involved.

too many times does he come down the court and he throws up a shot without anyone else even touching it. You can point to D-Rose, but Rose does still try to get others involved and relies on his shot when the offense stalls.

 

Right now the media is hyping Durant as the golden child, the foil to evil LeBron. He says the right thing, thanks the Lord etc, and just seems to be the "good guy" we want to root for. Thus, when snotty-nosed, selfish Westbrook takes some of the glory away from Durant, it's easy to paint him as the "bad guy".

The truth is somewhere in between. Westbrook does seem to be a bit chucky for a PG-- similar to Marbury & Iverson-- but he's also a phenomenal player who is difficult to defend. On the other hand, Durant is about the biggest chucker I've ever seen and never seems to get called out for it.

 

i agree they do have limited scoring options and he shouldnt take too much flack for pressing the scoring issue, but again, when he comes down with the ball and jacks up a shot with no one else touching it, it just isnt good basketball and flat out looks bad.

Now, maybe some of that is lack of quality at offensive gameplanning. Maybe that's what the coach wants, i dont know...but at any rate, for the thunder to take it to the next level, westbrook will have to get people involved.

 

Hollinger had a good reply to this in his chat. "The Westbrook stuff stems from two factors. 1) People aren't watching off the ball and seeing what a hard time Durant has getting open, and 2) People are seeing where Russ is at rather than where he was and where he's going. If you think he makes bad decisions now, you should have seen him two years ago. He's actually made a ton of progress, and he's 22 and still getting better."

 

James Hardin is the best distributor and play-maker on that team outside of Durant.

If the Rockets could figure out a way to make the salaries work, I would love a Hardin & Ibaka for Martin & Scola type deal to go down.

And this is coming from a HUGE Kevin Martin fan.

 

He's not the best player on his team.

He's not the NBA's best scorer.

He's not the best finisher on his team.


That's Kevin Durant. Now pass him the ****ing ball.

 

Battier is all over Durant off the ball, but Westbrook is, and has been getting exposed as a below average halfcourt point guard. Steve Francis-esque.

He needs to adapt better or his career will be over the second he loses some athleticism. I've always called Westbrook a football player playing basketball, he is very special, but he's clearly not on Rose's level.

If they do advance, Westbrook will average 28+ against the Mavericks and have Chandler in foul trouble every game. People will be back on the bandwagon. But the guy just doesn't make things happen in the halfcourt. Brooks might be to blame.

 

I watch games, they do too (at least a couple I think)

The growing concern is that Westbrook is starting to play/act like he thinks he is/should be as big a star as KD. That he wants more recognition and to be considered in the same room as Paul, Rose, and Williams. In other words, not sacrificing his game for the team, but vice versa.

 

so... you want 2 young players on rookie contracts for 2 older players with rather large contracts.

 

He definitely makes bad decisions at times but I think most of the hate stems from the fact that no one actually expects him to do it and has placed that expectation on Durant.

If Durant just carried his team to a win with 40 points, everyone would be praising him because that's the expectations placed on him, not Westbrook. With that said, he still needs to work on his decision-making in-game although I have no problem with him trying to take games over if he has the skill to do so.

 

are you just going by boxscores?

 

I don't think you watch his games because at times he def ballhogs

 

Yep, if there was/is a way to make it work I would love for that to happen.

 

If the Rockets win the lottery and used that pick and the new CBA allowed trades that didn't match to still work, that trade still wouldn't happen.

 

Do me a favor, when you watch the game tonight, pay attention to how many times he runs the full court, dribbles and takes it upon himself without letting others touch the ball. His passes very often are bailouts because the driving lane is closed or shot blocker in sight. We had a guy called Steve Francis, hello. When that athleticism is gone, his ceiling will be AI in Turkey.

 

Maybe so, but it wouldn't be because the Thunder turned down the offer:

Westbook
Martin
Durant
Scola
Perkins

 

He reminds me a lot of Steve Francis.

DD