Russell Westbrick Discussion: Clipper Gonna Clip

Honestly who cares? It’s pre-season the games mean absolutely nothing right now because they’re exhibition games and these players have been out for 3-4 months it will take time to get back in shape.

 

Ummm .... we do here at LB as all the armchair coaches have rightly observed we look like poop on the floor right now with zero chemistry in our lineups and the season's starting this weekend. One armchair "GM" even wondered if Frank was extended TOO SOON?

:Vogelshocked:

 

i think westbrook's arrival will force AD into the starting 5, for better or worse.

it's better to think of russ as a post player than as a wing/guard, as his primary damage is done getting into the paint. so people can't be there.

with AD at 4, a non-shooting C, and russ at point, teams can sit back and disrupt all the primary stuff we want to do. all of it. so that team better be OUTSTANDING defensively and on the boards, and must get into transition a ton.

maybe that could happen, but it hasn't yet, and my guess is early losses will force vogel to make the switch. hope AD holds up, as injuring the youngest of our big three to accommodate the least valuable would be...no bueno.

 

I said this last page.

You know who would have helped with spacing and IQ? Marc...

 

this is really going to end up as gary payton 2.0 isn't it?

 

If Lebron is a computer on the way he approaches a play, Westbrook is a slide rule. Like WTF is he doing on offense and defense?


You're not stephen curry who gets to shoot 3's with 20 seconds left in the clock


You're the third best (maybe) player on this team, you better damn well play defense

Now every player you can find plays like this but Westbrook whole game is like this. He needs to get in better shape and go full out on defense and do the little things as he's not the same guy who can just blow people (at least now with preseason conditioning)

 

i...wasn't going to say it. but yes, i said same before marc went to spain. we just need 12mpg from a guy who could legitimately defend centers and stretch the floor. the passing would have been a huge boon, too. sucks. eff drummond.

gp was a midlevel exception acquisition, so this could be substantially worse, tbh. at least we didn't give up any real major pieces in the gambit. worst case, russ is a gigantic expiring next year. could be turned into lots of things, in theory.

anyway, i'm not ready to declare it a failure yet.

some of that is new guys in a new system, etc., too, though. but when he doesn't react to either cutter initially, that's some wtf stuff.

 

Holy YIKES Batman .... that awareness on D 2nd clip.

 

declining super athlete that seems to have a medium level BBall IQ

sounds like I haven't missed anything not being able to watch games yet. Be interesting to see how the guys all work it out.

 

Damn, those are ugly clips. The way he doesn't react to the cutter nor his guy and then jumps like a crazy to nothing, damn.
On the offense, that's a stupid shot, really really stupid. It's even stupid if you're playing with friends. Low % guy, no guy anywhere near to get a rebound, early on the clock, game was close too. That's just stupid basketball. Even if it was near the 30sec at the end of the quarter for the 2 for 1, it's stupid because that's just switching a good shot for a bad shot plus a shot with few seconds to the end of the quarter (the 2nd shot). Not sure if confusing this last bit

All in all, that's really stupid.


However, I must point he's really funny in interviews. I know now we all ate him but if we get better, he's a funny guy to follow.

I also can't understand the apocalyptic posts. We have 0 (!!!!!!) regular season games. This team can only be analyzed in about 30 games, so anything we can say until then is pinpointing flaws and things to improve. More than that is just too soon to tell.
We can agree it wasn't an instant fit, but it's preseason, the guy has history in starting slow and we have literally only 3 players from last year. Give everyone time, the squad is full of smart and experienced guys who have been through all, they for sure feel worst than us and are taking extra time to find answers to the challenges we are finding.

I fully trust them

 

In Westbrooks' defense: maybe they were going for 2 for 1 to end the quarter. Of course, that almost just always leads to a bad shot IMO for the first one of the hoped for 2 possessions to end the quarter

 

quite optimistic of you considering the history of us seeing this guy up close as an opponent

 

reminds me of a snoop dog line "body of a godness, face from hell"....in Russ case "Body of star, brain of a scrub"

 

Let's play some games though and see what happens over the course of the first few weeks. That guy with the brain of a scrub is going into the HOF at some point.

 

Yes, I f hate that shot. If it's not Curry taking it, just make a good play to get 2 points
NBA has statistics for everything, would love to see the % of efficiency of that 2 for 1 shot when taken within the first 5 seconds of the clock

I think he is playing in the best context of his career. Maybe tied with the first run in OKC with that Durant-Harden team, but he wasn't this experienced. He is living his dream playing in LA, Kobe factor, in a team with Lebron and Rondo (both goats in basketball IQ) and knows it his is last shot of getting a ring. With all this context and knowing he has mamba mentality, I can only imagine he will figure it out and do what it takes to make this team successful, even if it is sitting down in crunch time or focusing his game on defense.