Russell Westbrick Discussion: Clipper Gonna Clip

Compilation tape above. Lol..seriously I really think that you are usually on point and insightful about most stuff. You do have an almost extreme thing for Westbrook tho. I believe James and Davis going MIA, along with a terrible roster construction, was more of a factor than Brodie. We shall continue to see it differently I suppose.

 

There may be some out there produced by haters of other players but for a one season clip you’ll be hard tasked to come up with Russ’s repertoire of sheer buffoonery.

 

You are a numbers, analytics guy..I can respect that because you usually post such things when you make your posts. I think stats are usefull, but they don't present the whole picture. Westbrook has been a poor shooter for his entire career, that alone doesn't mean he's not an impactful or effective player. He's a high level facilitator and an aggressive, attacking type of player. That is effective too if he's playing with players that can feed off of that. IMO Lebron and AD can work with Russ too, they just have to play in more the 21 games in order to call it one way or the other.

 

I wouldn’t belabor it nearly as much if not for your extreme and ridiculous defense of him with the same irrelevant statement about James and Davis. Yes, why we missed playoffs. No, did not cause or excuse the types of stuff all season long from Westbrook seen in that clip by all of us. With a sh***y bad attitude on top of it. And with all the awful stuff losing his man on defense not even covered in the clip. Zero accountability about any of it. Was all Vogel’s fault.

 

I would say about 4-5 years ago WB would have worked with them.

He was a different animal. First ballot hall of famer and one of the greatest to do it for a long time.

Now? He just isn't the same player. As much as it would have been a good story being back home and thriving, it just hasn't happened.

It still could, though, which I don't think will, but that's my opinion.

He hasn't been traded, yet.

 

See I believe that too if he would change the attitude and honestly try to work with what Ham is asking of him.

 

exactly. several years ago, he was a poor shooter and a really impactful player in many other ways. last year, he was awful by almost any measure, and it was part of a longer-term decline (since his highwater mark in 2016-17). his athleticism has diminished substantially, and he hasn't adjusted his game in any way to make up for it.

again, we've seen these things with other similar players (iverson the obvious comparison), and there's not really reason to expect it's going to reverse itself.

edit: and yes, a lot of my pessimism comes from the fact that russ has said and done all the wrong things in response to his crap performance. just finger pointing and chest beating about stuff that happened years ago and grumbling about his role. he'd need a mental makeover to succeed here, and that has to happen in two months after not happening for a full year.

 

We will see.

We still need more shooting on this roster.

 

Agh..Lebron and AD playing in 27 and 21 games is NOT irrelevant at all. It is actually the single most relevant thing of everything discussed in regards, to the Lakers. I stand on this...if James and Davis had played in 70 plus games together last season. Nobody would be harping on Westbrook. If they do it this season, Nobody will be complaining about Westbrook this season either. We shall see..unless he gets traded for Kyrie.

 

….. did not cause or excuse his exceptionally bad play and lack of any accountability for it. Was why the team missed the playoffs. 2 separate issues.

 

Right. I’m not seeing the signs that Russ has mentally adjusted to where his abilities currently are and how he could help the team.

Is there a chance he could embrace the role Ham has for him and help us? Sure. Do I see it happening? No.

I feel like Vogel tried even though it was ineffective. I also feel like a lot of us gave the move time to work despite what our eyes were telling us early. We just finally threw our hands up somewhere between December and January.

And no, nothing has happened this off-season to make it seem like anything will be different. We’ve gotten younger, but have yet to improve shooting.

Just not seeing it no matter how objective I try to be about it.

 

He should start by looking at an exel spreadsheet of his shooting numbers instead.

 

Ok..fair point..he deserves his criticism for his contributions to the mess. My biggest gripes with Russ were the careless turnovers, blown layups and poor FT shooting. He cut down of the TO's by the 2nd half of the season. The other two things were still subar.

Defense and attitude..I'm not as keyed in on that as you are. Nobody played any serious D last season besides the young cats IMO.

The attitude angle...IDK. He didn't mesh with Frank granted. However there seems to be this media portrayal of Russ, as a moody malcontent locker room disruptor for most of his career. This perception has been throughly debunked repeatedly by the FO of every team he's played on. The mainstay of every FO on Russ has been that he has always carried himself as professional at all times, and serves as an example of such for his teammates. You don't find any of his former teammates making such claims about him either. "Great teammate"..you hear that from everyone he's played with. Reaves made the comment that while it was portrayed in the media that Russ and Frank had this huge problem. The team never experienced that , and that Russ was very professional at all times and very encouraging as a teammate.. it's a curious thing.

 

…well done. Lol