Gil Scott-Heroin
Veteran
Bradley (the most obvious one of all - how you overlooked him, I don't know)Name all the shooting guards in the NBA right now who are better than Oladipo at both offense and defense.
I'll start. Klay. Then you have....?
There are some better offensive players than him, but they don't play D. There are some better defenders, but they aren't scorers. Hardly anyone is above-average on both ends..
Beal (see, what I did there?)
Butler (yes, he plays SG)
KCP (he doesn't have the same offensive skillset, but he's a FAR better defender)
Oladipo isn't even a top-5 two-way SG, and I mean I don't even like to refer to him as one, as he's far too inconsistent on both ends.
I not only question your motive behind this (your hatred for Westbrook's play is blinding you from posting sense), but if you actually watched enough Thunder games last season. You're telling me to look at the difference of FOUR games from this season, where he monopolizes possessions, and compare it to 67 games where he was in a completely different role? That shyt is about as dishonest as one can get. He had 4-5 game stretches like this last season, since I know you only like to see the game through the box score:That only makes sense if what you mean by "did his best" is "did the best that Russ can do and that's not particularly good". Look at the difference from that Pacers gametape and the kind of bullshyt possessions he kept getting in OKC..
He actually was performing well at the start of the season, in November he averaged 17 ppg on 50 FG%, and 44 3-pt%, and starting to find his groove within the offense. He then injured his wrist in early December and was out for pretty much the entire month. He came back and averaged 16 ppg in both Jan and Feb, and then he got injured again (back), returned and averaged 17 ppg in the remainder of March. Even when he came back initially from his first injury, his wrist was still bothering him all the way up until he injured his back (Thunder journal: Back injury gave Oladipo's wrist a rest).
Funnily enough, he had his most efficient season of his career, yet somehow Westbrook was a detriment to his game. Go figure.
Westbrook's "best" to get him involved in the offense had results of:
They were one of, if not the BEST two-man combo out of any Thunder lineup in terms of points differential, FG%, FGM, 3P%, AST (regular season + postseason). Oladipo was 12th in catch-and-shoot attempts out of all guards (4.9 per game, more than he ever had in Orlando - Curry for example only had 0.2 more C&S attempts), more opportunities than the likes of: Bradley=, KCP, Snell, Crabbe, Danny Green, Fournier, Harris, McCollum, Hood and Middleton.
2016/17 catch-and-shoot (with Westbrook) - 4.9 attempts at 54 eFG%
2015/16 catch-and-shoot (in Orlando) - 3.4 attempts at 51 eFG%
2014/15 catch-and-shoot (in Orlando) - 2.6 attempts at 47 eFG%
2013/14 catch-and-shoot (in Orlando) - 2.1 attempts at 50 eFG%
Like I said above, the fact you don't think Westbrook didn't do his best to get Oladipo involved throughout the game tells me one of a few things (or a combination of all): you either didn't watch enough Thunder games, you're overrating Oladipo's ability - he's typically been inefficient/inconsistent all throughout his career, or your agenda against Westbrook is crossing over into irrational territory.
Mentally a wreck from what exactly? What terrible positions did Westbrook put Oladipo under? The terrible position where he had the most efficient season of his career, in almost every shooting category? How dare Westbrook! You should know all about players having to change their games to fit next to stars - look what both Wade and Bosh (especially) had to do, to fit around LeBron. Now obviously I'm not directly comparing Westbrook's and LeBron's styles of play, but that's what happens when an offense is centered around a star who controls the majority of possessions - the rest of the players have to change their games.He was mentally a wreck by the time the playoffs came. It's what happens when you get put in terrible positions by your leader all season long, can't stand how he plays, and yet you're the one consistently blamed for it while being expected to excel at things that aren't particularly strengths for you.
(and yes, I'm aware enough of your broken-record posting style to know exactly where you'll take that).
On the footnote - don't throw rocks from the glass house you stay in.
What you're failing to take into account (it almost seems like you're doing this on purpose at this point) is that Westbrook was forced to score more because they didn't have enough perimeter shooting. Gibson, who only played 23 games can't score from the outside, and neither can Adams - both occupy the same spaces. Basically, Westbrook had to take the roles of two players, because of the lack of offensive production at the 3 spot. You're also overlooking the fact that Roberson crippled their offense, due to passing up wide-open shots, and not being a threat to score - which meant Westbrook and Oladipo had to deal with more defensive attention. As did any lineup which had Roberson in it.That's just at one position though (SF). They had two-way players at the other three positions in Oladipo, Gibson, and Adams.
You can survive a strong one-way player at one position if you have strong two-way players at the other 3-4 positions.
Just imagine if LeBron's main perimeter help on offense were Roberson and Oladipo.
Nah, this is not true at all. Far from it. Westbrook deserved to be MVP simply for the impact he had, not for the reasons why he won it [averaging a triple double]. Don't confuse the two.Westbrook still had "elite" impact, but he shouldn't have been MVP. Harden, Kawhi, Lebron all had a greater impact on the bottom line, Curry/Durant would have been ahead too if they hadn't forfeited consideration before the season started.
Last edited:




