Russell Westbrick Discussion: Clipper Gonna Clip

Caruso wasn't locking down Paul, Booker, or Payne and KCP wasn't shooting 40% from three against Phoenix.

 

I am NOT ok with his effort on defense and camping under the basket for rebounds, instead of blocking out or getting long rebounds (which we lost quite a few).

 

This is the issue. He's actually playing pretty well overall. Especially on the drive & dish/lob or just attacking the basket.
However, he should not be running the Offense in the 4th quarter.. We've already seen too many big leads slip away & Russ's shooting & turnovers are one of the main factors..

 

Wonder if Vogel has the balls to sit Westbrook down the stretch of a close big game.

 

Yes but ideally he should be on the bench to finish games if/when LeIso/Lebron PnR rather have Melo/Ellington/THT/Reaves (even Monk and Ariza?) than Westbrook when trying to finish games.

 

Buddy Hield wasn't going to move the needle much. He can't defend anyone or pass, and frankly Melo seems to be doing what he was supposed to be bringing to the table on a vet minimum.
Now Russ...I'll say this again...the dude is very erratic and schizophrenic early in the season. Yep...it's been the same thing for at least the last 4-5 years especially. IDK why that is, maybe he doesn't hoop enough in the off-season. However something else happens in these last 4-5 years too. Somewhere between Christmas and MLK day, a light bulb seems to go off in his head, and the dude turns into a monster. It's not all about dominating the stat sheets, he starts to dominate the games. I do know that he looked absolutely horrible at first in Washington, then after the new year, he turned them into a playoff contender. Any guy that can give you a 20-20-20 game has a lot more plusses going on then minuses.
I'm not going to just blindly defend him, sometimes he just does stupid stuff, I agree. I say give him some time though, there is a reason he is considered an elite player. I wished we had a full squad and perhaps the negatives wouldn't be as glaring as they are sometimes. Still I'm sticking with the opinion that folks around here are going to love Russell Westbrook before this season is over. Warts and all.

 

If the pattern holds: it would one of the oddest things out there. It's not like he's a rookie or doesn't have a scouting report.

Maybe he's just a unique player with extremes of both strengths and weaknesses that Westbrook, the players around him, and the coaches just have a much steeper learning curve. It would match the fact that in the last 5 years the team he's been on has either changed and/or having extreme roster turnover(OKC adding Georgo, going to Houston/capella trade, Washington trade). So every single season it's required a lot of retooling from both the Westbrook and the organization around him.

The only concern with the second half resurgence theory again holds this year, he hasn't been good in the playoffs even when he's turned it on in the second half

 

don't you guys think when we are in the playoffs that Lebron will be directing traffic in the 4th quarters?

 

It depends on what good is defined as I guess. His career playoff avg of 25/7/8 don't suggest that he is anyway some kind of trash. Also I'm not sure which team he was on, that was supposed to be a title favorite either. I look at last season alone...he averaged more assists and rebounds than Kuz.KCP and Caruso combined and they only scored 4 more points a game as a trio. I thought he was subpar in the bubble, but then I found out that he played with a torn quad. For me the biggest difference is that he has never played with two teammates as good as Lebron and AD. That OKC team that lost to Miami included. Plus the fact that Lebron is always going to be the one in control down the stretch of any playoff game. I think we are definitely better with him than we were last season.

 

big issue so far is nobody guards him, so AD and lebron can't do much in the paint. not sure how that gets resolved.

 

This is true.

 

Meh...you can not guard a guy and he can still get 15 assists. They count too. Bron and AD are going to get theirs regardless, they didn't want this guy for no reason. All I can say is stay tuned....

 

Uhhhh, we aren’t the GM and did not collectively choose Russ.

 

i mean, there's lots of video evidence of his man standing in the paint to prevent easy buckets for lebron or AD, but ok...