Russell Westbrick Discussion: Clipper Gonna Clip

I think we need to consider player development.

2 years ago, Caruso, Kuz or KCP were not the defenders they are now
I'm betting Nunn, Bazemore and Monk to take a leap there.
Dwight will also help to have less drives.

But it's definitely a topic. Very curious to see how it goes

 

feel like AC was always good for us on d, as was kcp. kuz improved.

so maybe the younger guys, but it would be something for bazemore to improve. then again, he probably needs it less than the others.

 

don't forget Danny Green.

he was shooting badly, but his defense was always on point in the bubble run.

 

I think they were good but not elite. Specially KCP, he evolved like crazy. I'm expecting Nunn and Bazemore to take the same leap

 

he was the year before, but it's a good point for consideration: we recovered after replacing his and bradley's minutes with matthews and schroder. maybe we can do it again.

 

This team will be as good on defense as it needs to be to win. Vogel will have them all set up. We don't need a bunch of great on ball defenders, though that is nice. We need good system defenders, help defenders and rebounders. I also think that our three point shooting will be good enough. Lebron and Russ can get to the hoop anytime they want. Defenses will be collapsed and our shooters will be getting wide open looks and AD will spend a lot of time dunking lobs. Time will tell but this group of players should be getting and making many more free throws. We have a lot of take it hard to the hoop guys. With the addition of Russ the Lakers will overwhelm many teams just on talent and aggression. I could go on and on but if this post gets much longer no one will read it....lol

 

AD and his Achilles, is the only real question mark on this team. If he's at 100 percent, this is the best team in the West by a wide margin.

 

I think the defensive contributions of Caruso and KCP have been overvalued. Caruso is a great defender (one of the better guard defenders alongside Lonzo and Jrue), but defence from the PG spot is the least valued in the NBA. KCP has decent lateral movement and sticks to the fundamentals well, but he is hardly a premier defensive stopper.

What made both of them successful here, is the 3 all time defensive bigs behind them and a highly intelligent Lebron playing free safety. It can't be overstated how much harder you can go on defence when you know if your man beats you, AD, Dwight or Marc are there to clean things up with Lebron providing help from the weak side. Our defensive identity has never been because of strong perimeter defence, it's been built on the back of blowing up the opposition's initial play with our bigs and then giving extremely high effort on help defence.

With that in mind;

• Russ can be an elite defender. When PG carried more offensive load in their last season together, WB was great on the defensive end.
• Nunn is athletic and has the desire to be a good defender - he can add some of what was lost from Caruso.
• Bazemore is a pesky defender who gambles too much - this will look much better with AD, Dwight and Gasol behind him.
• Ariza is a better defender at guarding large SF's than anyone we've had over the last 3 years.
• THT can and should take a big defensive step forward this season too.
• Monk is also very athletic and should develop some fundamentals under a strong defensive coach.

I'm not sure that we'll be that much worse defensively. It's not like we lost AD, Lebron and a great defensive center.

 

Here is an interesting video breaking down Russ on Steph last year.



His last year in OKC he was really strong defensively with George taking on the scoring. I feel we have some solid scorers with Lebron, AD, Nunn and Carmelo. Russ should be much improved on the defensive end with AD, Dwight, Gasol and Vogel all getting on him.

 

We lost our two best, most consistent perimeter defenders. No doubt about that. Jury is out on whether this group can be an elite defensive team or not. Our center position is our best defensive rotation, each bringing different strengths to the position (vs. two liabilities last season) . With our 2nd unit, Having Dwight anchoring that position with Nunn zipping around the perimeter and possibly Baze out there too will help hide Melo.

THT needs to make large strides defensively. He's got the money, role, and opportunity... time to see what he does with it.

We all need to keep in mind how good we were defensively when AD was out. If Vogel can get them to perform at that level without our anchor, then everything is automatically easier with him in the fold for the entire season.

I think we'll see better, more consistent D out of Russ. There will be less pressure on him offensively and he will be playing for a team and with other superstars who put a premium on defense. That hasn't been the case in a really long time for him. Steven Adams, PG and Ibaka are the best defenders he's played with. He's been coached by Donovan, MDA, Brooks, and PJ Calesimo... none of them preach defense and MDA is a f***ing circus show gimmick.

I think the veracity in which Bron and Russ attack the passing lanes is going to lead to some exciting ball. That's going to be Russ' best attribute defensively is he's quick and athletic enough to jump most passing lanes. That's a gamblers defense, but you can get away with that when you have AD or Dwight patrolling the paint. Speaking of blocks, while he's no Bron, Russ is very capable of swatting down a ball.

Baze and Ariza will be our best options against wings, just depending on their size. I think Nunn and Monk can both make some strides with our coaching staff directing them.

 

I have no idea about the role players. I expect that some of them will do better than others. I do know that Lebron, AD and Russ are elite players. As long as those three are healthy, this team is going to be great. We didn't sign any scrubs or guys coming off of major injuries. I really don't think that the transition, to playing with three elite players, is going to be as difficult as some think.

 

Russel Westbrook press conference live now on spectrumsportsnet.com

 

Going to be nice to be the champs again.

 

Thanks for the heads up and website juronimo! Peeping it now.

anyone else copping a WB jersey or lebron 6 jersey this season??

 

I missed the introductory press conference, was anything said that was noteworthy?

 

not really, nothing that we don’t already know. however...

russell does seem genuinely excited to be here, mainly due to being closer to family (mom, dad, wife).

he mentioned he still thinks about kobe and the conversations they had.

rob chimed in on one of russ’s questions and brought up how kobe admired russ and his fire, etc.

someone asked frank about working with 3 superstars, and frank alluded to the fact that there will be some level of sacrifice in this scenario which the whole group is aware of, and have already bought into.

 

Vogel kept us playing good defense even when guys like AD were out hurt. I would have liked to keep AC but I think Vogel will be able to maximize our guys and keep us solid on that end.

 

Russell's pops looks like he is the same age as his son. Those genes must have adamantium in them.