Russell Westbrook...Is there such a thing as "losing the right way"?

[Devil Plisken…CMS]

We just saw Lebron put together one of his best series ever in spite of a tough Pacers team, poor team play and bad coaching...
His team rarely answered the bell but that was enough to get by in this particular case.

I notice people take fault in Russell's approach to the game but the majority of time they offer no alternatives.

If the other star on my team goes 2-16, we have Melo & they have a star rookie (D Mitch) then chances are we are going to lose anyway....So why the fussing when Russ does everything in his power to stave off the inevitable L? It seems people are caught up in losing pretty compared to a competitor throwing convention to the wayside

 

[kuts]

Is there such a thing as "losing the right way"?

I think this title works against Russ in a way because he did do all that he could but still ended up losing in the first round. Which is to say that effort alone isn't enough. He's going to need to change some parts of his game and try and work with whatever teammates he has available because there's never a right way to lose...just a right way to take a lose IMO.

 

[CHICAGO]

We just saw Lebron put together one of his best series ever in spite of a tough Pacers team, poor team play and bad coaching...
His team rarely answered the bell but that was enough to get by in this particular case.

I notice people take fault in Russell's approach to the game but the majority of time they offer no alternatives.

If the other star on my team goes 2-16, we have Melo & they have a star rookie (D Mitch) then chances are we are going to lose anyway....So why the fussing when Russ does everything in his power to stave off the inevitable L? It seems people are caught up in losing pretty compared to a competitor throwing convention to the wayside

RUSS ISNT GETTING HEAT FOR GAME 6.

HES GETTING HEAT FOR GAMES 2, 3 & 4.

OKC SHOULD HAD NEVER BEEN DOWN 3-1


​

 

[75 Others]

Basketball is a game of rythym. maybe 5 players can still keep it despite your fukking POINT GUARD take 43 shots

 

[Devil Plisken…CMS]

Is there such a thing as "losing the right way"?

I think this title works against Russ in a way because he did do all that he could but still ended up losing in the first round. Which is to say that effort alone isn't enough. He's going to need to change some parts of his game and try and work with whatever teammates he has available because there's never a right way to lose...just a right way to take a lose IMO.

I understand the outcome. What I'm saying is if he senses things going to shyt by the 3rd quarter why are people so willing to overlook team inefficiency to give him a hard time? Halfway into the 3rd quarter of game 5 looked like an exit THAT NIGHT. Do I bring up that specific game due to them coming from behind? No...I bring it up as an example of him making an executive decision because playing by everyone else's approach to the game isn't working and as the leader of the team something has to be done

 

[Devil Plisken…CMS]

Basketball is a game of rythym. maybe 5 players can still keep it despite your fukking POINT GUARD take 43 shots

Did those 43 shots come at once? At what point in the shot clock did they come?

When it comes to Russ people avoid context

 

[75 Others]

Did those 43 shots come at once? At what point in the shot clock did they come?

When it comes to Russ people avoid context

naw you not gonna justify taking 43 shots

context, he took half the teams shots in total.

He was busy trying to outshine a fukking rookie, and all of sudden playing full court press on Ricky fukking Rubio

 

[Devil Plisken…CMS]

naw you not gonna justify taking 43 shots

context, he took half the teams shots in total.

He was busy trying to outshine a fukking rookie, and all of sudden playing full court press on Ricky fukking Rubio

You're trying to be funny but you're not giving me any data nor are you doing a good job at being funny

 

[BlackAchilles]

While I feel people do ignore the context of Russ within the team as a whole, there are three egregious flaws in his game that IMO both he and Billy Donovan definitely deserve criticism for:

1. Too many sloppy/careless turnovers

2. Takes too many unnecessary bad jump shots

3. His low workrate when he doesn't have the ball, on both offense and defense

Can't blame Pushoff P, Flabmelo, or the bench for those

 

[GilSho]

He just lost to Ricky Rubio & a rookie, somehow got less heat than Harden last year.

 

[kuts]

I understand the outcome. What I'm saying is if he senses things going to shyt by the 3rd quarter why are people so willing to overlook team inefficiency to give him a hard time? Halfway into the 3rd quarter of game 5 looked like an exit THAT NIGHT. Do I bring up that specific game due to them coming from behind? No...I bring it up as an example of him making an executive decision because playing by everyone else's approach to the game isn't working and as the leader of the team something has to be done

I think people are keying into Westbrook's inefficiency so much because of the team's inefficiency. It's almost like the team is a manifestation of his style of play, or that's how the Everyone-hates-Russ narrative goes...

Personally, I think that the coach, Melo, and George all got exposed by Westbrook's personality and style of play, which in turn exposed Westbrook's own style of play. IMO, at this point it's going to take multiple changes of attitudes to make OKC even decent. A coach managing three all-stars needs to know how to get the best out of them, Wesbrook needs to get a better shot so he can do damage off-ball and generally be more team-friendly (in a more seamless way), George's cold streaks shouldn't keep him from scoring, and Melo needs to try and become a born-again all star from the bench.

 

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

We just saw Lebron put together one of his best series ever in spite of a tough Pacers team, poor team play and bad coaching...
His team rarely answered the bell but that was enough to get by in this particular case.

I notice people take fault in Russell's approach to the game but the majority of time they offer no alternatives.

If the other star on my team goes 2-16, we have Melo & they have a star rookie (D Mitch) then chances are we are going to lose anyway....So why the fussing when Russ does everything in his power to stave off the inevitable L? It seems people are caught up in losing pretty compared to a competitor throwing convention to the wayside

Why are you ignoring the rest of the games in the series?

 

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

The funny thing about this thread is, he's actually more of an example of winning the wrong way - he won the MVP through a meaningless, arbitrary # of box score stats, all at the expense of his team's goals, by letting him generate and pad his own stats. So much so folks actually believed that fabricated process behind him averaging a set amount of box score stats was the reasoning behind his team winning.

 

[Playaz Eyez]

I mean....I guess. He "went down swinging", even though he's also a reason they lost in the first place. His passion and intensity gives him a bit of a pass even if he is actually a worse player than other comparable stars.

 

[King Jove]

through the first 4 games of the utah series, westbrook shot under 36% from the field, 21% from 3. with 5.3 turnovers per game.

that's where the series was lost.

you can't have your point guard taking more shots than anybody on the team, at such horrible shooting percentages, while turning the ball over at that rate, while playing trash defense.

you don't get props for sinking with the ship you crashed into the iceberg.

he's just as much to blame as anybody else on the team.

"heart" only means so much when you're so bad at the actual statistical parts of the game.

he shot like in the playoffs last year vs. the rockets too.

maybe westbrook is not a good number 1 option in the playoffs?