LOL still so many Westbrick supporters here, WB plays pretty on the eyes basketball but you look at his game and it is 100% dependent on his athleticism, once he nears 30 he's pretty much done just ask Derrick Rose. He acts like he plays with 100% intensity on the court but the things on the court are just an accumulation of what you do in the offseason, I have been watching him for years and have not seen any significant improvement on his playmaking or shooting, things which should have been his priority if he was indeed working on his game. Give me someone like Lebron who dances on the court in the sideline but adds something new to his repertoire every single season than Westbrick who acts tough on the court but doesn't do anything once the game ends. WB has just been benefiting from KD's greatness all this time, because KD is such an unreal scorer his efficiency has made up for WB's horrible shooting rate and me-first style basketball. Sure WB is a good defender but at the end of the day he's still guarding PGs...what good does that do the pg will just make an assist. He's too short to defend the real big time scorers like LBJ and KD so even if he acts tough on D the impact isn't as good as it sounds just like how defenseless guys like Curry don't really hurt their team that much. Now that KD isn't there anymore we're seeing WB just isn't good enough to carry OKC, the team has good players but they suck.
Dude Westbrooks record that yr without KD was 25-23 that's the fact I don't care who or who wasn't on the court. I didn't say they were bad I said they were a 500. Team. Harden in 41 games without Dwight was 28-13 he also in that stretch was missing bev tjones both starters he was winning games playing with kpapa unproven dmo Joey Dorsey Tarik black cannan. That's not exactly done great team either.
You basically said to put down Westbrook's game because the measure of his game is he cannot guard Lebron James and Kevin Durant. So then scratch off...Harden and the rest of the entire WORLD.
I'm not putting Westbrick down because I'm measuring him against Lebron James or Kevin Durant, I'm putting him down because he can't shoot straight yet shoots too much but people like Tmac_1 look at his overall stats without considering efficiency and yell "BEAST!!!!" almost every night. Tmac_1 even called him the best player in the league the other year on par with Lebron when he couldn't even get his team 8th seed in the playoffs and OKC lost more games than they won when WB scored 41 pts...no wonder because he was taking more shots than the 4 starters COMBINED. The fact that people are putting him on the same level as Durant and Harden (I'm referring to the "they're all equally good" posts) is just a slap to the face of both Harden and KD because these two guys have proven themselves by carrying subpar teams to the playoffs. KD is the type of guy who makes players around him better just by being there because he is so amazing other teams need to put double teams on him consistently which makes the defense way easier on his teammates. In 2014 when KD was injured, WB took 22 FGA but only converted on 42% of his shots. That's downright pathetic and a big reason why OKC missed the playoffs, but because he averaged 28 pts a night and had almost weekly 40 pt explosions people are misled on how good he is. Harden by comparison had a horrible year last year (missed All NBA teams) but still averaged 29 pts on just 19 shots. This just goes to show overrated Westbrick is because of his playstyle, because fans want to be entertained they engrave Westbrick's heroic plays into their hearts and minds and gloss over the 10 other attempts which he missed. We've all seen this song and dance before, Westbrick is just the latest incarnation of the Allen Iverson/Stephon Marbury/Steve Francis model, Chucker 2016 edition. All these guys are undersized SGs who only played pg so they can get first dibs on the shot attempt. Are they bad players? Not necessarily, especially for Westbrick's case the dude provides intangibles (on the court), good defense and has the clutch factor. However, his refusal to actually put work on his game by fixing his broken shot and learn how to set up plays instead of always monopolizing the basketball means he will be a tier below the true superstars in the league like Lebron, Durant, Curry, Harden etc.
this year is going to answer a lot of questions regarding westbrook and his impact on winning. While you make a lot of good points,saying WB isn't really in the same conversation as Harden and KD, i don't think this is necessarily true. He's an MVP caliber player just like them and that's been acknowledged by KD himself before and I'm sure many others in the league would view him as that type of capable player. So to me he's at the very least in the same conversation. You seem to be criticizing WB's work ethic a bit much as if he doesn't put in work himself. He's as much of a gym rat as the both of them and there's plenty of clips/vids documenting workouts these guys have done and some of them include them together. It's going to be an interesting season for him this year. The first time he will be the unquestioned leader of his own team. We will see how he and the team responds and if he his good enough to lead them to a playoff spot
I don't think I'm being overly critical because when you make the argument he's an MVP caliber player on the level of Harden or KD then he should be set to a higher standard than normal players. Lebron started out below average shot and then became one of the best shooters in the league, Kyle Lowry and Tony Parker started out with no shot and became above average shooters. Why can't WB go from below average to above average if he's really working on his game? While Westbrick might work out on the gym a lot and even have death workouts that's not really him working on his game that's just called maintenance and getting into shape. Working on his game would result in noticeable improvement or an additional facet in his repertoire like Harden developing his playmaking skills or Durant bulking up his stick-thin frame or Lebron adding 3 point shooting or Kobe adding a post game. With WB his playstyle right now is the same as his playstyle as a rookie and his strengths/weaknesses now are still the same as the ones he had back in his rookie years, he just became better overall. Its the same pattern we see with Melo now and Iverson/Marbury/Francis before them and so I don't see WB's ending becoming different either, once his athleticism is gone his playing ability will drop like a cliff like we saw with those guys and I'm sure the fans will move on to the next Chucker 20XX model.
fair points. For me personally, Wb's #1 problem has always been the type of shots he takes and that's just a result of the way he approaches the game. He's never going to be considered a consistent shooter. His money shots are his pull up midrange jumpers. He's going to attack and attack and that's just part of him having that alpha personality. Looking forward to seeing how this season plays out for him and how good of a player he truly is as it relates to team sucuess
Westbrook could be the most disruptive defender player in the NBA if he changed his play style . OKC has a change with him and oladipo along with Adams and the young euro guy to play some old school bang in the post bball . Wb and dipo can harass the other ball handlers to such an extent it could be tiring for other teams to even bring the ball up the court . Okc could be a fun team to watch this year . They need better shooting tho to be considered a real contender
1st post on this forum... haven't used a similar format for like 10 years now, not sure how to post without replying. Anyways, I feel like Harden has proven his ability to be the man more than KD or WB, but as far as the better player goes, it's KD > H > WB no question...
Would that even work though? No more Ibaka to clean up WB's gambles... Adams is very good but is he enough to compensate? Or would WB be better off to the way he plays defense?
True, no more ibaka but Adams , i think, is underrated and improving. I forgot about kanter too. I think if he focused more on D and had less ball handing and playmaking responsibilities he would be a monster. They could pound it in the post with WB camping in the perimeter to shoot, but you better put a body on him otherwise he will go in and steal the board.
It's on. Who has the best season record between WB, KD and JH? We will know after another 81 games. (actually it is just another fair contest among JH and WB)
