The ability to convince a player to make material sacrifices for the good of the team beyond what they're already willing to sacrifice on their own = a coaching skill. Honestly the coaching staff is my biggest problem this season. It's clear what needs to be done, convince Westbrook to cut out the mid range and he will be a significant plus for the team. As far as defense goes, this team is playing defense to its max capacity. We need to acquire help in that department.
sheesh...Jesus Christ dudes will see this and still act like he’s really been helping the team so far Who was it that said that we should put the ball in Westbrook’s hands more? Lmao Harden went 11-38 against San Antonio. That’s one of the worst high volume, low efficiency games you’ll ever see from him. He still dropped 50 on 38 shots. Russ shot 30 times and scored 19 points! How do u manage to shoot even worse from the field than a guy who missed 27 shots in a game? Russ shot 8 less times than Harden and scored 31 less points. Lol, it’s obvious why he doesn’t get nor deserve the leeway that Harden is given for a bad shooting night or turnover fest. If Russ shot Kobe’s percentages and had his level of efficiency, then we’d be thanking all known deities for that blessing. He will kill us with this level of play in the postseason. His rebounds and fastbreak buckets won’t come close to making up for all the negative play. Dudes are acting like because he had a nice 2 minute stretch against Toronto, it made up for going 7-27 with 8 turnovers. Harden is giving this dude a 4 on 3 by getting doubled at midcourt every possession, and he still can’t take advantage. Russ could really help the team if he stopped thinking he’s some high level scorer. Defenses love when he takes a lot of shots.
I don’t know if MDA has that skill in his bag. Who is the last all star level player he’s been able to convince to do that?
Of course he thought that lol that's why he took the shot. Dudes rarely take a shot they think they are going to miss. Only someone that has never played would think there is something wrong witht at quote. You really think someone squaring up to shoot is shooting knowing he's going to miss the shot? That's why guys hesitate or pass.
I’m sorry but this is so stupid. So Russell Westbrook does not have the impact of James harden? Who does other than someone like lebron ? It’s utterly stupid to try to use this stat as a measure of their worth. People tried to do the same thing with lebron and kyrie. This is the extreme flaw of stats like this. I guess if you want to look at on off vs an all time great then i guess you think Cleveland was a better team without kyrie. Ludicrous If anyone thinks the rockets are better off without Westbrook on the team you can’t see the big picture.
have you ever tried to change some of your own habits? its not easy and it messes with the rest of your life or game if thats as easy or even as effective and healthy , no one would ever smoke a cigarette or drink a beer
lol The point is there is an entire career of evidence of him not making these shots that he’s certain he would make. And a reporter very close to the situation saying his coaches have gone over this stuff with him. And he still takes them. That’s a big problem.
of course its stupid to you especially when you're not taking it with full context. that's your own issue. What a horrible post
I think we're acting like the Rockets aren't 3rd in offensive rating and 15th in defensive rating as if we're a bad team...this is with Westbrook playing a ton of minutes. This is with EGO and Green out! You want him to take less shots, get another coach, it's not going to happen under MDA, MDA would let Rondo come here and chuck. But you're right, Westbrook will continue to shoot because again, he doesn't care about efficiency, much like Kobe, he doesn't GAF about that. He does what he thinks is going to help the team win and he has supreme confidence in his abilities, for that reason, I'm confident it's going to turn around and he's going to contribute to this team. Yall can sit there and want another spot up shooter as if we don't have enough spot up shooters. As if every other guy we have isn't a spot up shooter, as if we don't have two spot up shooters hurt and coming back before the end of the year. Reddick wouldn't make this team better if you replaced him with Westbrook because at the end of the day he's just another guy that's going to stand behind the line and shoot shots. At the end of the day, he's going to go hot and cold like every shooter we bring here and at the end of the day Harden will have to create most of his points and he'll have to do everything for the team...again. We literally brought CP3 in to have another creator and guess what? He can't do that anymore or rather we spent a year watching him become a pricier Austin Rivers. Westbrook can STILL do that and that does lessen the workload of Harden.
Maybe Shawn Marion. It's easy to convince people to just shoot more 3's unconsciously. Asking WB to cut out mid range is ego-related. Need a Phil Jackson type for that stuff.
You can do this with a lot of teams and make a lot of good players look bad. I had to do some searching for some of the stuff I learned that made me skeptical of the supreme power of advanced stats but here is the thing with these stats like this, they are not bad, but using them as "I'll prove to you why Westbrook is bad! Here is his net rating!" I'll post the quote, this is about +/- that has been used against Westbrook. So, not only are we using a small sample size but its a really complex stat that can't account for all the variables of a game. Fine, now, I know rating is what people are using now. That is, the orting and drting makes a players Net Rating. The problem with that, is the bigger a players role, the harder it is for him to maintain a higher orating...this is why some star players teams may do 'better' with the player off the court. This is Basically, comparing Westbrook to Brewer is not how these stats are supposed to be used. So while a player like House probably has a higher net rating, I'm just guessing he does, all it really says is he's playing his role really well. If these stats were so effective, teams would NEVER miss a draft pick. There would never be a bust, these stats have existed since the 70s. Teams would never draft busts when it comes to American players because they'd have all the advanced stats to tell them "This guy is a fraud...this guy is a gem..." just doesn't work that way. In the end, scouts still have to watch games and not numbers for a reason. So, I know people will say "Well, what stats DO you have that shows Westbrook is playing well?" The fact that the team is playing relatively well and 3rd in offensive rating despite apparently Westbrook killing the offense WHILE still having the 2nd highest usg on the team. The thing is, if the team hits more shots, Westbrook's rating shoots up, because he's a pass first guard, he gets into chuck mode because he literally thinks it's on him to win the team games. It's that Mamba mentality, it's not pretty to watch sometimes, we've seen it for years from him...good thing for us though, Harden isn't going to stand in the corner like timid Durant and watch Westbrook do this, We've pretty much already seen this that they usually put the ball in Harden's hands in clutch time. Toronto is different they were up by 2 possessions and a 1 minute left to go so I saw no issue seeing if Westbrook could close the game. You're going to have to rely on him eventually.
I mean, it’s obvious we’re not a bad team, but there is no way in hell we’re ever winning a title with Russ at his current level. Russ doesn’t give a fck about efficiency which is something u just hate to see. 20 shots a game while shooting 39% is disgusting. Over 5 threes a game on 22% shooting is atrocious. 48% TS is embarrassingly bad. It better turn around or we will get slapped right out of the playoffs. Who here is talking about wanting nothing but spot up shooters? Just because people think Russ has been bad doesn’t mean they want a team with Harden and a bunch of limited role players. That won’t get it done, but Harden with Russ playing this atrociously damn sure won’t get it done either. Creating for others, rebounding, and fastbreaks ain’t washing away the stain of averaging 20 shots on 39% shooting and constant bonehead decisions. U would think that at some point a player would realize he can’t shoot and stop being so willing to launch jumpshots. It would be one thing if his shot was consistently online, but we all know that ain’t the case. His misses are horrendous. His bricks look like they never had a chance. He plays right into the defense’s hands time and time again as they bait him into shooting and he obliges without a 2nd thought. all I need from Russ is 18, 8, and 10 on slightly below average efficiency and I would be very happy...instead we got this dude launching jumpers left and right...
I know we actually agree with more than we disagree here, you know CP3 wasn't getting it done here, that contract was always gonna be a ***** to trade. While it would have been great to swap CP3 for a guy like Beal, wasn't gonna happen, we had to take a risk. I agree he has to play better, but he at least has the potential to do so. Also, there are plenty in this thread that are saying they'd rather have more role players than a player with all-star skills like Russ, as if we need more guys to just stand around the 3 point line and wait for a pass. The fact is though, it was either CP3 or Russ, we know CP3 never had a chance at getting this team to the promised land, Russ has been close sometimes and he has those games in the playoffs where for whatever reason, he goes off, he hits every other shot, and becomes ungarudable. If we get a game like that a series I do think it changes our prospects for the better. I also think if Russ is just missing shots (not the TOs, I want those fixed more than the shooting) he makes up for it with his pace and rebounding. The miss shots I can live with, defense, limit TOs, and his normal rebounding and pace will make up for it and I think that's why the team has the stats they do despite his bad shooting because he's making up for it elsewhere. No matter what people think, the CP3 signing hamstrung us, the only way we were getting out of the CP3 contract was with a risk like Westbrook. Once Butler turned us down the reality had to hit this team that something major had to change.
I disagree. If this is true, can you show me an example? I do not believe you can find numbers like this for any other player that is supposed to be good. It's also worth noting that we did not have this problem with Chris Paul, his lineups without Harden were always extremely effective.
