Russell Westbrick Discussion: Clipper Gonna Clip

10 assists in 22 minutes, not bad at all

 

He can look great out there and a force for good even if only a meh shooter, but then he starts putting too much mustard on the hot dog with ill advised difficult passes and gets himself unnecessary TOs.

 

Still crap on D.

 

oh no what will happen to his shooting?

seriously, though, i much prefer him in the 20-25mpg off the bench role. WHO KNEW?

 

I haven’t heard much said on the work Russ is doing for team morale this season. He is doing a great job of being the glue guy across the board.

Lonnie said a few days ago that Russ is constantly pushing him to shoot and be aggressive which is having a massive impact on his confidence when a hall of famer trusts him. Reaves said the same earlier in the season and last year. JTA called him the best teammate he has ever had. Bryant and Schroeder both said the same in their seasons with him. You can see the joy he is getting out of playmaking for our team and off the bench too. And Russ is really doing a good job of looking for AD.

It’s underrated in my opinion, and it’s helping us not pack the season in and giving us a really productive bench. If we’re gonna turn it around we need Russ’ playmaking and belief in the young guys.

 

That's been Westbrook's MO since he's been in the league. This type of stuff gets talked about everywhere he's played. I'm not sure what went left with Frank last season, but it's not a surprise that his teammates like him at all. He's the best PG on the team, hopefully Lebron recognizes that when he returns.

 

Honestly, in the past few games, Russ has found his niche on this team. He is making some great plays, shooting better from outside and finishing better at the rim. I give Ham a lot of credit for finding a way to integrate him onto the team, which Vogel was NEVER able to do. I am kind of feeling like, this is why Vogel was let go. He just could not find a way to integrate Russ into a working piece of his lineups. I am guessing his suggestions to Russ where so far off base to Russ that he just could not consider doing them. My guess is he told the FO how he felt and most of the important pieces agreed with him. Obviously his salary is too high but if he took a huge pay cut to come back, not sure I would not consider it. On the other hand, if we can actually trade him now for more pieces that will fit for the next 2-3 years it is probably a good time to do that. Russ is doing good right now and it is noticeable. He is not going to hurt other teams as much as they thought he would and they will get a huge expiring. Russ' play is helping everyone right now, no matter what happens.

 

I don't know what's more annoying his off-ball defense or his complete allergy to boxing out on the defensive glass

He's definitely fun in the open court and when able to turn the corner. I'm also impressed he stopped taking that awful midrange I think I'm Tim Duncan pull ups. So overall he's a neutral player now and not just a huge detriment which is a massive change from last year. I also think it's been really helpful for him to go against second teams where he doesn't have to deal with other team's best defenders and go against guys who has an athletic advantage over still

 

Ideally he should have come off the bench last year @Wino . Do you really think with two years guaranteed on his contract and it not being a make or break year (like this one) for him to ever again be paid any kind of money, plus in his mind his HOF career not warranting coming off the bench (even if better fit as we’ve now seen, than playing with LeBron and at the lousy level Russ did that last year) …. that he would have been open to it?

 

I think his playmaking is more worthwhile than people are understanding. In each game he is part of a run via some scoring and playmaking where we just overwhelm the other team for half a quarter. It lets us get back into games or extend the lead. And it gets guys going, like Lonnie, Brown, Bryant, AD, Nunn etc.

It’s valuable.

What we need is AD dominating, Russ inserting energy and Lebron closing properly.

 

i'm pretty ambivalent. agree that he's been so much better in the new role. agree that his defense is still problematically bad. agree that i could see scenarios where he extends at slightly-above MLE rates to sunset it here. and agree that none of this should impact the possibility of moving him to improve the team.

the happy part is that i think we look less desperate by the day, so the choice may end up being ours.

 

Watching Schroeder again he can't carry Russ's jock or even Reaves's when it comes to distributing the ball. Remember how we all thought he was poor feeding AD lobs and his passing in general? It's still a big meh at its best, and the guy pounds the leather off the ball eating up the clock looking for something that looks like maybe he could make happen somewhere. Maybe. He's a little guy too and may be part of the problem doesn't seem to have good floor vision. I think he's just not got a feel for it much.

 

Schroeder is offence off the bench. Not sure he is high level play making.

 

Russ is feeding guys pretty well. Gabriel and Walker have both benefitted from Russ' passes. I know his defense is not great but he has been better and has actually made some pretty good plays at times, like his block of Durant. He is trying harder and that is better than it was. I still would not mind trading him, if we can work out multiple pieces that can help us but at this point I think it may hurt our second unit a bit. Depends who we bring in. What this shows me is how hard it can be for some guys to play with Lebron because you have to give Lebron his space and not overplay your hand. Flat out, Russell's skillset is a huge overlap with Lebron's and he is going to have to take a back seat when Lebron is in the game. But I have really liked this past few games when AD has dominated and we get some pretty solid production from our other guys. When we have AD beasting and 5-7 other guys make major contributions, we are going to be much better than we have shown so far.

 

yeah, his play off the bench definitely moves him off the "must-trade" list for me. i mean, sure, if the right thing happens, i'm in. russ isn't getting younger and still hasn't been a big positive on the floor overall.

i'm glad we didn't pay firsts to get off him, though.

i know we've prematurely gamed some of this stuff out on occasion, but say we move bevs/nunn for a 20m per guy that we want to keep. maybe we decide to keep russ on a new deal at 1/4 his current cost. all of a sudden, you're below the tax but operating over the cap, which frees up the full mle and allows you to pay reaves without any pain.

 

I'd much rather the front office use Russ to get assets than resign him even at a lower price.