Russell Westbrick Discussion: Clipper Gonna Clip

he's a low IQ player

takes bad shots, dumb turnovers, can't be trusted in crunch time, still relies on his athleticism when it's clearly diminished. and on top of that, he doesn't play defense. as unimpressive as DS was, he was a smarter player than westbrook is

 

There was never a doubt that the fit wasn’t ideal. The counter argument was that talent would overcome the questionable fit and count me as someone who was in favor of the trade. There’s still time to turn it around, but it’s been nearly unwatchable for the most part.

Having a PG that can’t shoot and makes questionable decisions kills the flow of the offense. Having that same player be unfocused and ball watching on D isn’t doing any favors.

Is it all Russ’s fault? Of course not, but he’s been pretty bad.

 

A lot of broad shots there, let's see....I'm not aware of a lot of "experts" or analysis ever saying that he is a low IQ player...what makes that the case for you? He is not a two guard playing the point, shooting has never been his strong suit. That being the case in which games have his shooting specifically been the reason we lost? Can't be trusted in crunch time..he's hit more game tying or winning shots in the NBA since he came into the league tho. Again can you point to his crunch time failures in our losses this year? Turnovers, he makes too many careless ones I can agree with that, I'm not really aware of his turnovers costing us any games yet either but you can point out those games. He doesn't play defense...but you haven't noticed that Bradley and Rondo have been getting drilled lately. I'm watching these games too, I keep asking for people to point out his defense being terrible besides a play or two. What games are we talking about, perhaps I can go back and watch it again and get a better picture. All I'm saying here, is there is a bunch of things being said about the guy, but point me to the games your are referring too or the instances where these things cost us a win.

 

I ask you the same...what games are he costing us a win? Which ones can you pin on Westbrook specifically? You are telling me that his defense has been worse than Bradley's or Rondo's? Again point me to that game

 

Slick, Russ is this years whipping boy.

So far, he has had 1/3rd good games, 1/3rd average to above average games and 1/3rd below average to bad games.

As has the rest of the roster, but Russ will continue to get the blame.

 

The lack of spacing, his dumb shot selection and TO's and what has been a big surprise just bad defense is hurting the Lakers. Teams are able to play under the PnR games and make it impossible to have space on any post action the Lakers runs, he leaves his man open on defense to get boards, just all these little things out there.

He's essentially the anti-Caruso.

 

We have a lot of games to left to play. Folks around here aren't going to like this...but Jeannie isn't going to sign off on trading Russ, forget about it. Unless for some reason, HE asked to be traded...that aint happening.

What lack of space on post action are you talking about? What games are these? Let's get past these vague comments about what the guy is doing and point out the games. The parts of games that were negatively impacted by what you are talking about. I'm watching the games, most of them twice...I'm not seeing all that, perhaps you can point me to all this evidence. It should be easy to see, since it's as glaring as you say.

 

westbrook isn't costing the team wins on his own. the main reason for that is the lack of defense

but he's been terrible and the numbers back it up, which is part of the reason for their struggles. if you can't see that, then you're either watching a different game or just in denial

 

I'm all for the games folks would like to talk about specifically. Stats without context are misleading. I'm going to defend any of these guys if I think it's due. If they don't play well I'm not going to ignore it. I think Russ is playing better than he started out, and a lot of criticism is undeserved. If you were expecting a scorer that played PG...you were going to be disappointed from the jump.

 

Not sure what games you're watching if you're not seeing spacing issues on offense: The article contains several examples before the Lebron injury
https://www.theringer.com/nba/2021/11/2/22757924/lebron-james-russell-westbrook-los-angeles-lakers

 

As he should since he makes more than the entire team combined minus AD and LeBron

 

Now see...Bradley and Rondo have been terrible on defense. Show me which games are defying that statement. Once again let's talk about these actual games where he has been "terrible " Name them so we can go back to each game and see exactly what terrible looks like. This shouldn't be so hard.

 

why do you keep bringing up bradley and rondo?

 

Aw .The salary is the problem.

 

I see them playing worse on defense than Westbrook but you keep claiming Westbrook is terrible on defense and that is causing all these problems. I'm still waiting on these games where he was so terrible on defense or terrible in general to be pointed out by you. Was it Boston? Milwaukee..Minnesota...what games are we talking about?

 

the entire team has been bad on defense. westbrook is a bad defender, but it's not just him

 

Ok..I can get with that more, I don't consider Russ a defensive player, but I think all these guards besides Talen and the Rook have been worse than him on D.

 

I'd rather see a 3 guard lineup of Russ, Tucker and Reaves over anything we've played to date.

 

Yeah an article after 5 games played is all you have? Lebron missed 8 straight games, do you have articles detailing how Russ was causing space issues for AD. Even this very article stated that Lebron has been moving farther away from the hoop on his shots for 6 straight years! IDK...maybe that is what he plans on doing?

I mean Lebron James has been in the league for 19 years, maybe he is looking for some one else to do some of the driving and attacking the paint? Just a thought.