Westbrook is the reason that no one his team has any confidence.

[DonKnock]

I wish I cared enough about the mvp like @DonKnock gonna be hilarious when/if russ wins cause I can really give two fukks .

Has no sound argument in the chamber so cops out by "not caring"

 

[MooseMouthMthafuga]

​

Y'all niccaz silly, man

 

[Loose]

It continues to kill me that people keep saying the roster sucks when 4 out of 5 starters are above-average at their position, and they can choose to go elite defense or strong shooting with the fifth starter.

The problem is that a real superstar adjusts to what his team needs. If putting the ideal roster on the court means you need to play more defense yourself, or feed the bigs more, or build Oladipo's rhythm and confidence instead of treating him like a bail-out afterthought, then Russ should be doing that.

Instead, Russ has spent the entire year forcing his teammates to adjust to what HE wanted to do. So now he does what he wants, and people act surprised that a roster of talented players has regressed across the board.

the idea roster around russ would be shooters and ballhandlers like houston has. this IS not the idea roster for russ. yes roberson, Adams and taj are good defender but none of them can create nor give you consistent production on a daily basis. in fact tbis roster is the idea roster for Kevin Durant not russell westbrook. oladipo btw, has had his most efficient season playimg with russ, and is much more inefficient playing without. could russ do things better? of course but this roster doesn't not fit his talent at all. having guys like gordon lou coming off the bench would help him a lot

 

[Stop_It_5]

It continues to kill me that people keep saying the roster sucks when 4 out of 5 starters are above-average at their position, and they can choose to go elite defense or strong shooting with the fifth starter.

The problem is that a real superstar adjusts to what his team needs. If putting the ideal roster on the court means you need to play more defense yourself, or feed the bigs more, or build Oladipo's rhythm and confidence instead of treating him like a bail-out afterthought, then Russ should be doing that.

Instead, Russ has spent the entire year forcing his teammates to adjust to what HE wanted to do. So now he does what he wants, and people act surprised that a roster of talented players has regressed across the board.

Well said.

People love being extreme one way or the other with their opinions. Russ can be incredibly talented and the reason his team is as good as it is, while also being a detriment at times. OKCs been trash in the 4th quarter for 5+ years despite the roster continually changing.

Forget about usage, Donovan put him out there all year down the stretch of games with four defenders and placed the burden of making offense happen solely on his shoulders. Of course he's gonna take a shyt ton of shots. The issue in the 4th is making bonehead decisions and taking goofball shots, like he did through out this series and has throughout his career. That's been a constant no matter how the roster around him looks, and that's the bullshyt that's never gonna change.

 

[Thegospel]

Listen to what Lou Will says here:





That's putting confidence INTO your role players.

Some people might say "Well that's Lou Williams, a career scorer".

But coming into this series there was tons of talk about how: "Lou Will can't score in the playoffs, look at how he folded with the Raptors last season".



Look at the difference in numbers between this year and last year.

Season    Age  Tm  Lg Pos  G GS   MP  FG  FGA  FG%  3P 3PA  3P%  2P 2PA  2P% eFG%  FT FTA  FT% ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV  PF  PTS
2014-15    28 TOR NBA  SG  4  0 25.5 4.0 12.8 .314 1.0 5.3 .190 3.0 7.5 .400 .353 3.8 4.5 .833 0.5 1.3 1.8 1.3 1.5 0.0 0.8 2.3 12.8
2016-17    30 HOU NBA  SG  5  0 28.4 6.4 13.4 .478 1.8 4.4 .409 4.6 9.0 .511 .545 4.2 4.8 .875 1.2 3.0 4.2 1.6 0.8 0.0 1.0 1.8 18.8
Career                NBA 46  0 25.0 3.9 10.3 .378 0.9 3.3 .263 3.0 7.0 .433 .421 3.0 3.8 .793 0.3 2.0 2.3 2.3 1.0 0.0 1.3 1.6 11.7

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 4/26/2017.


It's really mind boggling to me how after years of hearing how "Coach X or Player Y can just get more out of his guys; a real leader of men that makes everyone around him better" etc., etc. But all of a sudden with Westbrook, people are so ready to just chalk it up to, "well they suck, what could he have realistically done?"


He could have spent the season focused on leading and player development rather than spending it working on his branding.














Westbrook Frames


Russell Westbrook Clothing, Looks, Brands, Costumes, Style and Outfits | Looklive



Russell Westbrook dubs himself #fashionking at New York Fashion Week

Too much energy into another grown man that you don't rock with

 

[Professor Emeritus]

the idea roster around russ would be shooters and ballhandlers like houston has. this IS not the idea roster for russ. yes roberson, Adams and taj are good defender but none of them can create nor give you consistent production on a daily basis. in fact tbis roster is the idea roster for Kevin Durant not russell westbrook. oladipo btw, has had his most efficient season playimg with russ, and is much more inefficient playing without. could russ do things better? of course but this roster doesn't not fit his talent at all. having guys like gordon lou coming off the bench would help him a lot

It's not the "ideal" roster for Russ. But you rarely get the ideal roster. Even with the ridiculously good roster Durant got this year, he adjusted to have the best defensive season of his career to account for Curry and Zaza's weaknesses there. Kawhi doesn't have the ideal roster now, but he's become a more driven scorer in order to make up for the lack of such a player on the team. And most relevant, Lebron's 2006-2007 squads were awful for his skill set, but he pushed them through anyway. Then he changed his game up in 2011 to fit that squad, changed it again when they lost Bosh in 2012, adjusted to a more ideal roster in 2013, totally changed to make up for brand new issues in 2015, then mixed it up again this year.

Westbrook don't have ideal players, but he has good players. He could use them better if he cared to. But someone who often failed to use the greatest offensive weapon in the NBA just isn't going to adjust to players he considers below him. So he made them do the dirty work (defense and box-outs and off-ball movement) while he concentrated on the box score stats he wanted.

This team had all the elements to give Houston real problems, except that Westbrook's decision making cancels them all out.

 

[King Sun]

I was about to make the same thread today but specifically about oladipos body language since he's been on the team. He has no confidence at all

 

[ALonelyDad]

Yeah..Westbrook is the reason Oladipo shot 19% and Roberson is the worst FT ever, take him off the team. Roberson would be a 90% free throw shooter and Oladipo would lead OKC to the finals!

 

[Loose]

It's not the "ideal" roster for Russ. But you rarely get the ideal roster. Even with the ridiculously good roster Durant got this year, he adjusted to have the best defensive season of his career to account for Curry and Zaza's weaknesses there. Kawhi doesn't have the ideal roster now, but he's become a more driven scorer in order to make up for the lack of such a player on the team. And most relevant, Lebron's 2006-2007 squads were awful for his skill set, but he pushed them through anyway. Then he changed his game up in 2011 to fit that squad, changed it again when they lost Bosh in 2012, adjusted to a more ideal roster in 2013, totally changed to make up for brand new issues in 2015, then mixed it up again this year.

Westbrook don't have ideal players, but he has good players. He could use them better if he cared to. But someone who often failed to use the greatest offensive weapon in the NBA just isn't going to adjust to players he considers below him. So he made them do the dirty work (defense and box-outs and off-ball movement) while he concentrated on the box score stats he wanted.

This team had all the elements to give Houston real problems, except that Westbrook's decision making cancels them all out.

durants usage here especially in the 4th was ridiculous. the hell are you yelping about . in fact westbrook imo deferred to Durant TOO much at times wasting 19 seconds for a 20 foot fade away jumper.

westbrooks decision making outside of his 3s are fine, the problem is hes the primarily and only ballhandler and has been forced into thst role exclusively since harden left. reggie helped at times but he's not a pnr guard. you can't expect ones usage and decision making to improve if they aren't able to go multiple possessions in a row off the ball

 

[FTBS]

These are grown ass men. Either they are built for it or they aren't. Russ is not perfect by any means but this situation isn't either. I get so tired of this circumstantial analysis. If dudes could hit open shots, or free throws, or consistently create their own shot and in turn they managed to win the series would that be a function of Russ giving them confidence or them just being better? He's the man so yeah he gets the credit and the blame. That's fine. But all this extra silly shyt people come up with to pile on is just unnecessary. These nikkas get paid too (in the case of Kanter, Adams, and Oladipo they get paid quite handsomely).

 

[duckbutta]

It continues to kill me that people keep saying the roster sucks when 4 out of 5 starters are above-average at their position, and they can choose to go elite defense or strong shooting with the fifth starter.

The problem is that a real superstar adjusts to what his team needs. If putting the ideal roster on the court means you need to play more defense yourself, or feed the bigs more, or build Oladipo's rhythm and confidence instead of treating him like a bail-out afterthought, then Russ should be doing that.

Instead, Russ has spent the entire year forcing his teammates to adjust to what HE wanted to do. So now he does what he wants, and people act surprised that a roster of talented players has regressed across the board.

It's not about who is good and who is bad, it's about who fits and who doesn't...and this team doesn't really fit around Russ. He needs to have a ton of shooters on deck like Harden does since he spends most of the game with the ball in his hand and driving to the lane...

and being "above average" at your position is subjective. I don't give a shyt how good Roberson defense is, and he is easily a top 10 defender in the nba...but going 1 for 11 from the line is atrocious and when you do stuff like that your defense doesn't really matter that much since you can't even make the easiest shot there is to make in basketball...

I think Danny Green is one of the 10 worst players in the nba...and the only dude i would NOT trade for him outright is Roberson...because Roberson is somehow worse than Danny at offense...and Danny can't dribble or pass...

 

[KevCo]

So take RW off the team they are the BK nets but at least they have their confidence and value right?

And draft picks

 

[Armchair Militant]

Imagine trying to build confidence and get in a rhythm after arguably one of the best players in the world leaves your team to go join the enemy

Imagine waking up knowing you're going to have to be the man for your team for the foreseeable portion of your career, but being told by your coach that he can't play one of your key players because his defense is absolutely trash

Imagine being on team that is expecting you to do everything, and the moment you do something wrong it all collapses on you, even though your ex teammate used to choke in clutch situations as well

His talent makes up for the absolute disaster that the team could have been in, but the role Westbrook and the organization has thrusted himself into has caused detriment to the team as a whole in the 4th quarter because he's the only one with adequate talent level to take over when needed to. His ex teammate had talent but he was called mr. Unreliable. By his own city.

No superstar in their right mind would want to forgive his ex teammate for thrusting him to literally be the system in OKC.

KD was a free agent. He doesn't owe Russ anything.

 

[Professor Emeritus]

Yeah..Westbrook is the reason Oladipo shot 19% and Roberson is the worst FT ever, take him off the team. Roberson would be a 90% free throw shooter and Oladipo would lead OKC to the finals!

You're being randomly selective as fukk. First, Oladipo shot 34%, barely worse than Westbrook himself. And yes, it could have been better if Westbrook had built chemistry with him and used him right all season long. Second, you ignore Roberson shooting 52% and 42% from three for 12ppg - that's great for someone people claim has no offensive skill. McDermott was shooting the lights out the rare times he got the ball. Adams and Gibson were dominant inside. But all three of those combined were getting half the shots of the guy who was shooting 38% from the field.

It's not about who is good and who is bad, it's about who fits and who doesn't...and this team doesn't really fit around Russ. He needs to have a ton of shooters on deck like Harden does since he spends most of the game with the ball in his hand and driving to the lane...

and being "above average" at your position is subjective. I don't give a shyt how good Roberson defense is, and he is easily a top 10 defender in the nba...but going 1 for 11 from the line is atrocious and when you do stuff like that your defense doesn't really matter that much since you can't even make the easiest shot there is to make in basketball...

I think Danny Green is one of the 10 worst players in the nba...and the only dude i would NOT trade for him outright is Roberson...because Roberson is somehow worse than Danny at offense...and Danny can't dribble or pass...

Why are you talking about Roberson - he's the only guy who is NOT above-average at his position. I was referring to Russ, Oladipo, Adams, and Gibson. Roberson is just there to give you a defensive option in the fifth spot. If Russ actually wanted to defend someone himself, they'd be able to put McDermott there instead and have a Westbrook-Oladipo-McDermott-Gibson-Adams lineup that would be five real offensive threats at once, with multiple strong defenders as well. Roberson just ha to play so much because Russ wants to play literally no defense at all.

 

[mastermind]

I know this is from last season, but can we talk about this?

Victor Oladipo looks so much better in Indy now. A lot of his problems last season were on him, but still.

Enes Kanter looks like an asset with the Knicks now as well.

Sabonis looks like a solid NBA player in Indy as well.

I know I asked this last year, but was Westbrook really playing with "garbage" or was he making them look garbage?