Yup, great summary. However, I still don't mind him taking the occasional fade away in the paint, or a wide open 3 off the catch. At least keeps him in his rhythm and helps keep the defense. But glad that he's hopefully making strides in the right direction, and he took very few long 2's thankfully. And at least the 3 point shots he took were good looks, and no surprise he made at least one of them!
Yeah I'm almost positive they must've said something to him. Especially after his last two games. Sometimes you have to reach rock bottom before actual changes are made. No 3's off the dribble, almost no long 2's (that odd bank shot he seems to have a strange love for), and the rest were decent looks inside the paint. He created a boatload of opportunities for other Rockets as well. I still stand by that I believe he can average 12+ assists per game if he keeps driving to the hoop like he was tonight. Now he won't be shooting 10-18 every night, and the Suns interior defense is pretty weak, but I'm convinced he can be a 18/8/12 guy on solid efficiency if he takes the right shots.
Exactly. That will be the true test. If they cram the paint with defenders, if he going to force up semi contested 17 footers just to get his ~20 shots per night quota? Or will he be patient, and pass it off and wait for another opportunity, thereby risking his PPG average falling. Only time will tell.
I need to rewatch but I can’t believe he had the worst +/- of all starters....again. Like this felt like one of those obvious massive game tilt games. I will say he did actually kill spacing regardless of how well he did in isolation and everywhere else.
I honestly can’t believe what I’m reading around here nowadays. Westbrook has been pretty damn bad in what 15 or 16 of his 21 games played. These stats have at one time in Wesbrooks career have shown him to be positive. It’s not like Westbrook’s entire career has been misjudged by net rating, and winshares and all that mess. But for some GD reason, NOW they are meaningless. A 1 game sample can now disprove the bad stats. Bizarro World.
He just needs to keep attacking the rim while he still has his athleticism. His shot is just abysmal. But overall I'm happier with him over current cp3
it doesnt matter at the end of the day.. harden proved he can win it all alone... if he can have his best buddy to hang out with him in the meantime i am all for it... russel westbrook as a rich man's bobby brown
Last 4 games, ever since the SAS and TOR debacle where he was a huge negative. 26 PPG, 7.75 RPG, 7.75 APG FG% 56.2 3PT% 35.7 FT% 89.5 TS% 63.9 Obviously these percentages are not sustainable, but he's not going to continue being a 22% 3-point shooter on low volume either. He's taking about 2 fewer 3-point shots per game in his recent play, and overall taking a couple less FG attempts as well. First 19 games, on 20 total shots per game and 5.4 3-PT attempts per game Last 4 games, on 18.25 shots per game and 3.5 3-PT attempts per game And his FT% is now up to 75.9% which is the highest since his MVP season. His FG percentage around the rim is now at a career high 66.9%. Who would've thought it would be harder to finish around the rim playing on the court with Stephen Adams, Andre Roberson, Enes Kanter, and Nick Collison taking up space in the paint compared to the modern day Rockets! I don't have access to the in depth shot data game by game, but from what I can surmise via data analysis and watching every game, he is taking about two fewer 3's, two fewer long 2's, and replacing that with ~2 more shots around the rim. Where, again he almost shooting about 67%. So the semi contested 3's and mid range attempts (low value shots) are being drastically reduced and/or replaced with high value attempts around the rim. No wonder his TS% has been great during this stretch. This is basically the ideal scenario we've been hoping for. Sure it's not like we're playing against defensive stalwarts, but the Magic have a lot of length and are decent defensively and he cut them apart. I hope he keeps this up!!
It was the raptors game (Dec. 5th). Russ had a bad shooting night, but we won because he got all of our other players involved early and we were dominating the offensive glass. that was the first time i remember them putting the ball in Russ' hands for most of the game. he shot terribly but still had a triple double. From that point on, Russ has been more efficient shooting the ball and it seems like we are getting better contributions from our complimentary players. you don't worry about Harden; he's gonna get his. I think what we know through 23 or so games with Russ is that he needs the ball in his hands to be effective, that he needs to limit his turnovers and shots, that he's best when he's attacking the rim, or dishing to an outside shooter, that he takes our rebounding and offensive rebounding to another level. If Russ can be more efficient about his shooting and cut down on the turnovers, this has a chance to work. Our length and especially our defense is still a problem, but i think we have figured out that the way to make Russ work is to have James sacrifice a little more by playing off the ball more, and put the ball in Russ' hands more; especially early in the game.
I like him, he's a solid dude and gives us more diversity. With CP3 it would've been all slowed down and we would not have won some of these games.
Thanks for posting this. It’s crazy how many people in here are taking stats completely out of context to prove that “Westbrook sucks.” Westbrook was clearly in a slump, and will be adjusting to a new offense all season. These are perfect examples of stats that will improve from career average based on circumstance, (fg% at the rim). Then you’ve got people (who have never been good at understanding stats, even in the best of times) claiming that things like TS% and +/- are good indicators of Westbrook’s performance going forward. Bizarro World.
Westbrook has looked great over the last four games. I hope it continues. I'll learn to love him if it does. However, to dismiss 20 games of looking bad as a slump when we're paying him 40 million dollars per year seems a little crazy. You just can't have those kinds of slumps when you're paid like a superstar. Danuel House can have slumps. Ben McLemore can have slumps. Westbrook can't.
Very happy about his playing style last few games. There were few moments he started to settle for jumpers and we lost the lead. He should never do that especially at the beginning of 4Q with the second unit. He should focus moving ball around, drive and kick or attacking the basket.
He's been great in these past few games. He's been gelling really well with Harden, and our starting lineup is one of the best in the league. I hope he can keep it up. If this is the new normal I'll be here ready to eat crow as a certified Westbrook Hater. The one area that I'd still like to see improvement are the minutes while Harden is on the bench. Harden is currently leading the league in minutes played. Last night at the beginning of the fourth quarter when Harden sat our lead dropped from like 20 to 10 in about 3 minutes. And you see this happening all the time, it's why Harden has to keep playing 40 minutes in all these games. I'm really envious of Giannis only having to play 25-30 minutes and sitting out entire 4th quarters because they blow these teams out. Their team is SO good without him, they even blow teams out when he misses the entire game. I know he's in the east, and it's easier over there, but Harden just had to play 41 minutes against the Cavs, and 36 against the Magic. If our non Harden minutes weren't so detrimental he'd be able to sit a lot more. If those Westbrook lineups without Harden can start to be productive on a consistent basis, it will do wonders for this team.
I’ve been very critical of the way MDA wasn’t doing anything new to integrate Westbrook into the offense. Nothing new other than let Russ he Russ. I’m seeing evidence of change now. His shot selection is changing. He knows there’s better shooters than himself and he’s passing up open 3’s to get it to them. The team is running screens for him. The team is running the ball through him in the post. They have adjusted to doubles on Harden by using Westbrook’s speed. MDA and Westbrook deserve credit. Harden does too for that matter. This team is coming together.
Agree with all of this. I'll add to it, there are two big changes I've seen that I've been happy with. One is that Westbrook often goes for the dribble drive when he gets the ball open at the 3 point line rather than shooting. This is maybe the biggest surprise (who would've thought a D'antoni team would discourage taking wide open 3s?) but just from my eye test this has been working out really well. Westbrook with a head of steam driving towards the basket unguarded is no joke. I don't know what the actual stats are but when he does this it seems he either gets an easy layup, or another better shooter gets an open 3, like you pointed out. I bet if we could get stats on this it's an extremely productive play, I'll bet the Rockets FO has these stats, and that's why they keep doing it. Second one is how they respond to the Harden double teams. At the beginning of the season teams would double Harden in the middle of the court, and he would pass to Westbrook who stood off to the side near the 3 point break, behind the line, which made it really easy for the defense to recover, and Westbrook didn't have as much space to operate. The defense would typically recover before the rockets had time to do anything productive. Those double teams were killing us. Now we have Harden bring the ball up on the side of the court, and Westbrook will stand in the middle of the court, inside the 3 point line, near the top of the key. This is a major adjustment - now Russ has the ball in the middle, with two defenders way behind him, and way more space to operate. Ever since they've been doing it this way they have been killing the double teams, and I think this might be why other teams stopped doubling Harden.
Looks like his knee is getting better. Approaching him and letting him understand that he needs to take less low % shots mustve been a delicate situation but it appears that it has happened.
