lol theres no analytics tools yet to measure heart motivation joy! actually there is ... its our brains ill keep westi just for being a good dancer and buddy to harden.... harden can win it all all alone he dont need nobody, just a fair officiating
It literally isn't a bad % for clutch shots though. When the most clutch player "Dame Time" Shoots 36%...really only Kyrie and Kawhi basically shoot over 45% from clutch time, they are true players that turn up in the last few minutes of a game. I think you are just downplaying the rebounding and play making and the pace he's able to push his teams to play. I think these are things that stats don't always tell the full story of.
Were you using that argument to defend Chris Paul last year, when he was superior to Westbrook in every single category but rebounding?
Not only that, one of the most analytically driven teams gave him that contract lol and he was then traded to another super analytically driven team after denying that he didn't want to play for one of the best organizations in the NBA (Miami) because they were willing to go all in on him too...
and reportedly this was pushed by Tillman and his son as well as James Harden; not Morey and the analytics department. p.s. Our GM and his people are fantastic but they ain't batting a thousand. They also thought Melo and MCW would be a good fit.
No, this is what you said. Harold Miner was a bust. He was nicknamed Baby Jordan...I think that tells you how much of a bust he was. This is a HOF player you are saying is bad at basketball. Yall said this stuff about Melo and it turned out the fit wasn't right or he just wasn't given enough time. As for you comparing him to brewer, that's fine, like I said, shooting wise sure. But does Brewer also run the fast break and grab rebounds at an historic level like Russ?
what if morey and Tilman are using westbrook for baiting Durant into forcing nets to being traded to rockets? would that evened things out enough for you?
Even if this is true...how does that explain a well run organization like Miami also wanting Westbrook? If Westbrook wanted to play for Miami, he'd be there, the only thing stopping that trade was that Westbrook specifically asked for Houston.
Oh I forgot about that bust. Fair enough. But my point was I don't care if a player is uber athletic if they're sucking on the court. And Westbrook is having a historically bad season. It's the worst season of his career by a large margin. He is not an asset and his athleticism doesn't mean a damn thing to me if he's going to suck this bad.
Miami isn't batting 1000 either. And nobody else wanted him. People like Zach Lowe stated they were shocked the trade took place because they thought Westbrook was untradeable.
Sure, they don't bat 1000, no one does, not Ainge, not Morey, not Presti...but Presti and Riley both believed he was worth that money. The Rockets and Morey end up getting him, whether the reports are true or not, I don't know. Yall say Harden has such BBIQ, he clearly thinks its going to work out, I think so too if given time and patience and more than 20 games. Honestly, Russ can shoot 10% from the field for me, I don't care that much man, everyone is going to be judged in the post-season. That's all that matters for this team at this point. All this regular season stuff is just tune up for the games that really matter, and I think Russ is better than CP3 at this point because for once Harden has a guy he can pass the ball to that can also create and isn't afraid of leading a team. CP3 did that for one season, it almost worked out, I think Russ is gonna be just fine in the end obviously.
I hope you're right. But I believe you're as wrong as any human being has ever been in the history of the universe. =)
If it were making up for the bad. His win shares, net rating and all the rest would reflect it. Just like it did in his prime years. It’s what earned him his ridiculous contract. You are very clearly clinging to a few things he does well and ignoring the heaps of evidence that the good isn’t enough to make up for the rest anymore. There was a time in his career when this was a reality, but that time has passed. He peaked in his MVP year and has declined every year since. This isn’t coming out of no where.
and all this was after toronto made a run of 10-2 or something, almost closing the gap... THE SCORE WAS 101:100 THIS WAS A HUGE MOMENTUM CHANGE... HE clearly put the team on his back and carried it to safety when it was just on the brink of folding up
If Westbrook put his foot down and demanded Hartenstein be the center that plays with him in the second unit I would have a new appreciation for him. Absolutely. However, it is worth noting that Westbrook is the anti-Hartenstein. The Rockets are undefeated in games in which Westbrook DOES NOT play meaningful minutes.
I just don't put as much into net rating as you do I guess. I see the team's record is better at this point than it is last year and they are in the hunt for a home seed, that's my main concern. I think the things he does well he does really well too and you won't find many players that do those things well and it's being taken for granted.
Russ creates looks for others, but he himself is trash when it comes to efficiency which is why he can’t even compare to Harden. Harden can drag last year’s Rockets to 1 of the top offensive ratings in history. Russ with PG and finishers like Adams, Grant, etc can’t even drag OKC to being a league average offense. I doubt anyone here believes that Harden wouldn’t have had last year’s OKC roster as a top offensive team in the NBA. Really? Idk how you’re able to just gloss over someone shooting brick after brick to the tune of 7-27 to go along with 8 turnovers like that wasn’t hurting the team in a major way. No, we want guys who are efficient and play smart. We don’t want someone with a Kobe mentality, but Tony Allen shooting touch. If anything, Westbrook’s usage needs to go down. He has a 99 offensive rating while taking 20 shots a game with a 32% usage. I’m sorry, but that is atrocious. I can’t even say he’s taking the load off of Harden at this point. Harden is having to make up for his negative play. He needs to get his sh*t together, because this level of play will absolutely kill us in the playoffs. Rebounds and fastbreaks are nice, but that won’t even come close to making up for this level of high volume, garbage shooting and turnovers in a playoff series.
Should have stopped right there, that's all I said, does he create open looks for others? That's a plus then. I'm not comparing him to Harden, Harden is a better player, I'm just talking about what he can bring to the team. Some of yall put WAAAY too much into efficiency. Dudes like Rondo won championships shooting badly, the game is more than that. He adds something to the team we were missing, another guy that can create shots for others. That's a plus. I've seen people here completely dismiss good players because of bad shooting %s. People really think Westbrook is the first guy teams play off of and not even realizing that the reason they do that is because playing close up on him and getting the wrong angle is an easy blow by for him, so you play back and hope he shoots a jumper...just like they do Giannis, Simmons, and many other players that can't shoot consistently. You bring up Kobe man but people here hate on Kobe's game...and Kobe's game won championships...because he was a high volume chucker that didn't GAF about %s either. I always have to defend Kobe Bryant because people nowadays just look at %s and numbers and damn everything else. And you're glossing over what he did to get the team the win though. I love this, next time Harden has a bad game, lets just call it like it is...and if he brings the team back, lets ignore it and bash him for putting the team in that position in the first place. That's what yall are doing, ignoring that he finished the game well and got the team the W, that's all that should matter in the end. Give those shots to who then? Cut his shots down to 5, who takes the 15 other shots? Who wants to take the 15 other shots? Will it make them better? We're also missing Ego and Green, let's remember that... and how many of those shots are 3 pointers? Most of them are the shots he always takes. Also, this is our offense, this is how we play. I don't care about him shooting, I care about the type of shots he takes. So you want CP3 out there with Harden again? Do you want to watch Harden have to do EVERYTHING including create shots for another guy that's become a mostly spot up shooter?
